2112 Gottingen

2112 Gottingen Street / Vogue Theatre / Cove Theatre

1898 50th Anniversary

1848 - at least 1898
the North Baptist Church.1
1935 (ca)
Community Theatre, 600 seats, at 208 Gottingen (old street numbering.) Closed about 1947.2 pic1946
April 29, 19483
opened as The Vogue by Franklin and Herschorn, 936 seats
1970
sold to Famous Players pic
19724
renamed Eve; the only adult movie theatre in Halifax
1974
renamed The Cove
August 25, 1985
The Cove closed
1986
redecorated as an alcohol-free youth alternative music club, Club Flamingo. The name was registered on November 17, 1983 by Greg Clark and William L Burke. In 1986 Keith Tufts & Derick Honig reregistered the name with a Maritime Center address, and renamed it "Pub Flamingo." The venue had a repertory cinema element and an intended record label too—Flamingo Records—though Out of the Fog was the first and last release. (Clark says, “Getting involved with one band was a bit of a conflict of interest in terms of trying to promote everybody. There was volatility.”) Clark, Tufts and Honig also launched a short-lived entertainment magazine, New Works, that lasted about a year.5

1987 - after GALA bought it, after the balcony was renovated to floor space, before we painted it black. Photo from the RobinMetcalfe collection.
1987
The gay community, GALA bought it and Rumours moved in, with more or less the same setup and decor as Club Flamingo.
1995
GALA wound down and Rumours closed - see those pages for the history.
ca. 1996. Unknown photographer.
ca. 1996. Photographer unknown.
September 21, 19956 - February 26, 1998
WormwoodsDogAndMonkeyCinema.
December 31, 1996
A bunch of quite good photos of the interior, taken at the New Years Eve party, were posted by John Wamboldt to "The Wormwood's Dog and Monkey Cinema Group" Facebook group on April 19, 2021.
March, 1999
MilleniumBar moves in, closes in July, 1999
Some time in 2000
Starts getting used for raves under the name Filter.
2003
ditto, Club Red
2004
2004
April, 2004
the plastic letter board reads: Club 2112 Opening This Spring. Ron Foley Macdonald writes: Club 2112 was Greg Clarke's thing, with a mix of live and film. I booked the films for him--I remember Don't Look Back and Yellow Submarine, all in 35mm.7
June, 2004
the reference to Club 2112 is removed from the plastic letter board. Opening This Spring remains.
August, 2004
the sign now reads Open Sooner or Later.
February 15, 2007
TheCoast article "Punch it up" says, "Mickey MacDonald, a local entrepreneur and businessman, has purchased the building and is turning it into a boxing gym. He plans to call it Palooka's Gym, after the titular boxing hero in the Joe Palooka boxing comic strip from the 1930s." MacDonald was appointed chair of the Nova Scotia Boxing Authority in February, 2006.
October 16, 2007
CBC Information Morning piece with MacDonald says he's stripped the asbestos, put on a new roof, and the new boxing gym, "Joe Palooka's" is about 75-80% finished.
August 8, 2011
Palookas announces they will cease regular operations as of October 31, 20118 pic
January 4, 2012
Building has been sold to Shaw Television GP Inc., who confirms that Global Maritimes will move there from Burnside. The new studio is expected to be operational by September. 9

A much more complete history written by LynnMurphy can be found in the archives of WayvesMagazine.

This page is part of Rumours, GayBars, and HistoryProject.

Footnotes:

1. November 18, 2015 Pers Corr from GaryBrooks?: I just ran across material, brought to my attention by HalForbes -- in an article on the Gottingen Street property that was Rumours for a period. We all knew that it had been the Vogue Theatre before it became the club, but were you aware that the building started its life as the North Baptist Church?
6. John Wamboldt, the Facebook group
7. April 21, 2021 Wormwood's Facebook group