3 posts tagged “historic preservation”
A lot can happen in a week, especially if you leave town for a short vacation.
I was pleased to read (online) the news accounts of the Cailloux Foundation’s gracious exit from the debate concerning the fate of the Arcadia Theater. I have consistently stated the Cailloux proposal, which offered to reconstruct the old theater’s auditorium into an open-air facility, was innovative and should be applauded. I like it when ideas come from “outside of the box” thinking.
I even enjoyed reading the letters to the editor which are critical of the course I’ve proposed: restoration of the Arcadia Theater. I’ve come to expect some criticism whenever I offer leadership on an issue. (Note to Mr. Hyde: your figures are off. I’ve cost the taxpayers of this community much, much more than you cite, though some might argue the expense has made the community better. Still, the jury’s out. Perhaps my efforts here have been a total waste of resources. You might be right.) Just remember Herring’s Second Law of Politics: You can accomplish almost anything if you get the right people to oppose you.
I would suggest we need a vigorous debate about the future of our old downtown area. The decisions made in the next few months will impact that area for a generation. The Peterson brothers’ idea of tearing down the old St. Charles Hotel and building a self-sufficient little hospital/office building, complete with a gas station on the ground floor, was a good decision for the Old Town area, but one which also impacted the neighborhood for more than fifty years. Likewise coming decisions will also impact the area. There’s a change in wind direction right now and this is the time to plot a new course for the little ship.
I am sympathetic to those voices who suggest Adam Smith’s concept of an ‘invisible hand’ is at work in the Old Town area – wiping away those structures and institutions which are no longer of economic utility. I am also partial to the voices who would like to preserve a portion of our community’s past. (Duh. Please see the past 12+ years’ worth of columns.)
I suppose my argument is this: there is a third way. Perhaps there’s a way to repurpose an old thing – say a vacant and deteriorating movie theater – into something that’s economically viable in today’s climate.
I would never propose we save the Arcadia simply to preserve a specimen from the past, like a fading butterfly pinned to a display board.
If the Arcadia is to be saved it should be made a vibrant part of our community, a place where we gather to celebrate a variety of events. It should become a place that builds community, a place where we share the special benefit of living in this place at this time. It should become a place where people want to be.
The Arcadia, in my opinion, should not be made into a 1950s-era movie house. If the community supported it economically as a single-screen 1950s-era movie house, I’m thinking the Hall family, who are experts in the business of presenting movies to the paying public, would never have shuttered the old girl in the first place. Their new facility, the sparkling Rio 10 Cinema, reflects the changing economics of that industry, where a small crew runs many screens simultaneously, where the stadium seating offers comfort and clear lines of sight, where the sound is superb. Asking a restored Arcadia to compete with that would be like asking a Model T to compete with a new Ford Mustang. We might feel nostalgia for the Model T, for its look and the memories it affords us, but my money would be on the newer car.
Nor should the Arcadia become merely a mini-Cailloux Theater (the facility previously known as the Kerrville Municipal Auditorium, managed by the able crew of Playhouse 2000).
Nor should the Arcadia be transformed solely into a meeting space for conventioneers visiting our city.
Nor should it be a neglected department of our city government. I still feel the city should give the Arcadia to a non-profit group. As I’ve offered before, I would be happy to form such a group.
There are those in our community who are much cleverer than I. If we work together on the Old Town area, and the old Arcadia Theater in particular, I’m thinking there is a solution that might just work, though I’m not completely sure what form that solution might take. There are examples elsewhere from which we could learn; there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
Until next week, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who has been, without a doubt, a costly citizen.
Wow! What a response!
Last week I wrote about finding the movie “Irene” on DVD – the old silent film is historically interesting for Kerrville, since it was the first film shown at the Arcadia back in 1926.
I rambled here last week that I’d like to show the movie at the Arcadia and invited anyone who was interested in watching the film with me to drop me an email (joeherringjr .at. gmail .dot. com) or a postcard (615 Water Street, Kerrville).
Honestly, I thought I might find 10 people who’d watch the old film with me. We 10 would sit in the dark old Arcadia and root for Irene (played by Colleen Moore) as she searched for happiness. I could see us sitting there in our lawn chairs, munching popcorn, the film flickering as projected on a bed sheet.
Let’s just say a few more than 10 people want to see the film. Ok, a lot more than 10. I had to call a friend at the City to see how many people could safely be in the old theater at one time. We might need to have two shows. Maybe three.
So, if you missed sending me a message last week, but want to be included in the invitation list, please drop me a line. There are a few logistical problems to solve, but I’m still hoping to present the movie at the Arcadia soon.
The show will be free, and I think the experience will be fun. For the first time in 81 years the people of Kerrville will see this old film together in the same theater where it played.
I do have a bonus challenge for my engineering friends: how can we cool down the old theater to a comfortable temperature? There is no air-conditioning in the old building, and it can be quite warm in there. Too warm to enjoy the 93 minute movie.
I’ve had two suggestions, both good. First, we could show the film on a Saturday morning. The building is coolest then. Or, we could wait until autumn.
But I’d like to show it at night, with the Arcadia sign flashing in the night sky. And I’d like to show it right away, while people are talking about the future of the Arcadia.
So – if you have an idea how we can cool the old building down (inexpensively) to show the film, please drop me a line.
* * *
Speaking of old films, I got a great email from Cheryl Johnson, office manager of our local Time-Warner office, this week:
“Time Warner Cable will be hosting "Hollywood in the Hill Country" on Saturday, July 21st. We will be doing a free showing of the movie "Casablanca". This will be held at Louise Hays Park - Centennial Stage. The movie is to begin at sundown so it should be around 8:30PM. We would love for you and your families to join us! Bring your lawn chairs, blankets, picnic baskets or coolers. Sit back and enjoy the movie!”
Now that sounds like fun! I hope the weather is good for them – this is something I’d like to see done often, and eventually, I’d like to see old movies presented at the Arcadia Theater.
Until next week, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who likes old movies.
Those who’ve read these weekly columns – faithfully presented here each week since my current editor was in grade school – will know I have more than a passing interest in local history.
In presenting stories of our community’s past, I guess I’m hoping to instill in others this love of our heritage here.
I’ve tried various ways to promote preservation of our community’s few remaining historical buildings. I served for a time as the chair of the Kerr County Historical Commission, I served as chair of our community’s recent sesquicentennial celebration.
And I’ve put my own money where my (often unquiet) mouth is – spending more than I should to build a collection of Kerr County historical items, from photographs and commemorative plates to one of the few surviving programs of the 1936 State Championship Football game, where the Tivy Antlers battled the Amarillo Sandies. I have a small Taylor guitar with the words “Kerrville Campfire Edition” written on the rosette. I have soda bottles from Pampell’s and the H. E. Butt Grocery Company (“Silver Valley Sparkling Beverages”). I have books written by Kerrville authors.
Many of the items in my collection were given to me, I’m glad to say. I couldn’t have afforded all of the items in my collection. I have doors from the rooms of the old Blue Bonnet Hotel, and the switchboard from that old hotel; I have old newspapers, and several thousand photographs.
Yeah, I kinda care about local history.
So the recent proposal to tear down most of the Arcadia theater concerns me. While I applaud the Cailloux Foundation for thinking “outside of the box” with their innovative proposal, and also for their generous contributions to our community, I think historic preservation is far more important than the idea of having an ‘open air’ theater in the downtown area. Their plan, while preserving the current façade and lobby area of the building, will completely destroy the rest of the building, replacing the auditorium of the theater with a high-dollar pole barn.
Besides, a reasonable plan already exists to restore and renovate the theater, a plan that will be funded by visitors to our community through allocation of the hotel/motel tax monies. And, in a series of future columns, I hope to share some ideas I’m hearing about the future of our downtown area.
Since the Arcadia will be in the news for the next few weeks, I thought it would be good to share an old column, first published in the late 90’s, telling the story of the theater:
On the warm Tuesday evening of June 29, 1926, a flock of folks crowded into a newly built hall to watch the comedy film “Irene,” starring Colleen Moore. They were greeted with “cooled” air and a saga about the life of a poor, beautiful Irish lass whose dire economic circumstances obscure her royal lineage. She worked as a shopkeeper’s assistant, selling dresses. A local grandee had obtained the job for her there as a model; the villainous shopkeeper had demoted her to lowly clerk. During a grand fashion show, the grandee notes the absence of his protégé, storms to the dimly lit store, costumes the girl and returns with her to triumph, and eventually love – discovered on a rusting fire escape, outside the fashion show.
The scenes of the fashion show were “registered in subdued tones of the Techni-color process, a new idea which has recently been discovered by those who invented the method of color photography.” This probably explains the choice of this movie, a First National release, as the film for that particular evening. The film was in color.
“Irene” was the first film shown in the newly built Arcadia Theater.
The citizens were very proud of their new theater. There was an older movie house, the Dixie, near the corner of Washington and Water streets, on the northern corner, where the Home Center is today. The Dixie is remembered for its wooden bleachers, where patrons tucked their feet up to avoid the rats that ran along the floor eating popcorn and nibbling on shoelaces. The Arcadia, by contrast, was a Movie Palace.
Built at a cost of $90,000, the new theater featured high-tech (for 1926) projection equipment (a pair of Powers projectors), a ‘Gardner Velvet Gold Fibre Screen,’ a Hillgren-Lane pipe organ, and seating capacity for 1,000. The building looked very different then: it featured a Spanish mission façade, and the 16x40 foot ‘arcade’ was accented with rough plaster and hand-hewn beams. In the ‘arcade’ were seven display cases.
Seating was also arranged differently than the seating many of us remember. In addition to the ‘orchestra’ and balcony seats, there were also eight loges with five chairs each. Smoking was allowed in the balcony seats only.
The small stage (8 x 15 feet) was furnished with scenery from Volland Scenic Company of St. Louis, and included a “beautiful mountain and river scene, typical of the country surrounding Kerrville. It is a remarkable reproduction of nature, done in oil.” There was also an orchestra pit measuring 7 ½ x 25 feet; this was the home of the pipe organ.
The neon sign we see frantically flashing in the night sky is not the original sign for the theater. The first was about 15 feet high and extended six feet above the building, with 16” letters. The lighting flashed on and off at intervals, but was not neon; the coloring of the letters was done by placing ‘glass color hoods’ over the lamps, and red and green and amber were the predominate colors. There was a twinkling torch and a ‘flowing’ border driven by an electric motor.
The Bart Moore Construction Company built the building. Mr. Moore was also the president of the Kerrville Amusement Company, which owned the Arcadia and Dixie Theaters, and he would serve as the Arcadia’s first general manager.
Admission prices for the first week of performances were 25 and 50 cents.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who spent many hours at the Arcadia Theater.
