By TOM DIXON Senior Communications specialist
ROCK SPRINGS – Downtown Rock Springs restaurants are packed on performance nights at the Broadway Theater.
“It makes downtown a hub of activity,” said Chad Banks, manager of the Rock Springs Main Street/Urban Renewal Agency.
Historic theaters like the Broadway are the heartbeat of many Wyoming communities. They create a space for neighbors to gather and provide a venue to expand visitors’ cultural horizons.
The venues also bolster nearby local businesses, draw tourists, host nonprofit organizations and offer meeting and office space for small startups.
Encouraging the renovation and expansion of these historic downtown sites, and reaping the quality of life and community enhancement benefits that follow, is a key economic development strategy of many communities.
New life, new activity
The nearly 70-year old Broadway Theater is in its second full season since shuttering in the late ‘70s. Back then, the historic building was known as the West Theater after the family that ran the business. The facility was long used for storage.
When Rock Springs began to push for downtown renewal, local officials knew the building had a better future ahead. The city acquired the theater in 2008 and renamed it the Broadway.
What followed was $1.7 million in public investment, including another $500,000 of donated labor and materials from private businesses.
Visitors to the Broadway Theater are now greeted in the lobby by a swooping stairway leading to office and meeting space upstairs. Trumpets, trombones, musical notes and photos of bygone celebrities adorn the walls.
The 370-seat theater boasts custom carpet meant to replicate the building’s original flooring.
In its first full year, the theater hosted nearly 70 events and drew 9,500 people downtown.
“We’ve introduced smaller activities too, events like Live in the Lobby that bring in local talent,” Banks said. “We’re trying to find new and unique ways to use the facility, to bring people downtown and to give artists more exposure.”
Rock Springs officials see the Broadway Theater as a potential cultural center of their community. It is becoming a place where people come to meet their neighbors and patronize local businesses.
Evanston hopes to travel the same path with the reconstruction of its historic theater, the Strand. The building burned in 2007, about 90 years after it was first built.
In the days following the fire, some talked of demolishing the structure. Architects and structural engineers, however, assured the community the building was stable.
The Evanston Main Street decided to purchase the Strand. Project organizers decided saving a significant historic building on Main Street in the middle of the city’s historic district was part and parcel of the agency’s mission statement.
“The last thing anyone wanted,” the group’s website states, “was a huge gaping hole in the streetscape on Main Street.”
The Evanston Main Street purchased the Strand and set out to reinforce the theater. About $1.7 million in state and local contributions have helped repair the roof, façade, interior, doors and windows.
A place for art, business and education
Similar repairs have transformed the Laramie Plains Civic Center, a nearly 140-year-old historic schoolhouse, into a space for the arts, small businesses, classes and the Gryphon Theater.
About 23,000 people have attended various events in the venue since it opened in 2012.
Around 50 tenants, ranging from health centers and radio stations to studios and daycares, occupy almost all of the Civic Center’s currently available space. A 2013 project to replace 500 windows was one of several steps to open up more of the three-story structure for rent.
The Business Council contributed a $1 million grant toward that renovation. The Civic Center has also received a $105,000 Community Development Block Grant to make the building more accessible to the disabled and $350,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to repair the roof and update the lighting and insulation.
Both federal grants are administered by the Wyoming Business Council.
At the opposite end of the state, Sheridan offers another example of how the renovation of a historic theater can be an economic boon to a city.
The historic WYO Theater in Sheridan was built in 1923 as the Lotus, a vaudeville venue. Later that decade, the theater debuted Wyoming’s first “talkie,” “The Jazz Singer.”
By the early ‘80s, however, the WYO was abandoned and facing demolition.
“A couple people stood up and said, ‘No, this is important, this needs to be preserved because the performing arts are crucial to the community,’” said Erin Butler, executive director of the Wyoming Performing Arts and Education Center, better known as the WYO.
The cultural economy
The organization, dubbed Save the WYO Inc., traveled the region performing theater, cabaret, musicals and other acts to raise awareness of the theater’s plight and money to purchase the building. The people of Sheridan rallied to the cause.
This year marks the theater’s 27th season.
About 150 events happen inside the WYO annually – everything from weddings and funerals to high school ceremonies and Sheridan College classes.
The WYO holds film series, theater, classical music and kids’ shows as part of its annual schedule.
“We are Sheridan’s living room,” Butler said.
A recent $4.5 million project to build a black box theater and expand the lobby of the WYO, supported by $2 million in Business Council grants, has helped the WYO bolster that reputation.
The business community is taking notice.
Butler called the recent vacancy of a storefront near the theater a critical factor in the opening of the Weston Winery.
Across the street, the old Montgomery Ward building is being renovated into loft apartments and commercial space.
“I truly believe the impetus behind that is the downtown activity, and a lot of that activity hinges on the theater,” Butler said.
It’s all part of what Sheridan officials call the cultural economy.
Art is not just about entertainment or having something beautiful to look at, Butler explained. The idea is art can also be a driver of economic vitality in a community.
“It enhances your everyday experience, and when that happens, it makes for a better, more livable, more vibrant place,” Butler said.
Theater officials plan to continue being an economic driver by expanding the theater’s footprint and, therefore, its reach.
The Business Council in April awarded a $500,000 grant to the city of Sheridan to expand the lobby and stage areas, create classroom and rehearsal space, improve accessibility for the disabled and restore the building’s exterior.
“We’re renovating the Hallmark building immediately north of us to become a larger part of the Wyoming Performing Arts Center,” Butler said. “It will mean more events to bring people downtown. I love that people have a space to gather, to come be a part of something bigger.”
About the Wyoming Business Council. Our mission is to increase Wyoming’s prosperity. We envision a Wyoming where industries are strong, diverse and expanding. Small business is a big deal. Communities have the highest quality of life. Wyoming is the technology center of the High Plains. Wyoming knows no boundaries. Please go to www.wyomingbusiness.org for more information.
