Red Bluff Daily News Special Publications
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/23915
Restoring The Rodgers CORNING — The City Council ordered the theater to close Sept. 28, 2006, 70 years after it was built, because broken toilets, a dirty concession stand and a hole in the ceiling left it in desperate need of repairs. Community members have wanted it reopened ever since and the city has taken steps to secure money for the theater’s renovation as both a theater and cultural center. An action plan was approved the the council in January. But where the roughly $400,000 needed will come from is still unknown. “People ask me every day when it will open,” said Darlene Dickison, City Council and Friends of the Theatre member. “I tell them, ‘we’re working on it.’” An informal group of volunteers created Friends of the Theatre in 2006. The group falls under the umbrella of Hometown Revitalization. Members of both groups are working with the city to restore the theater in the heart of Corning at 1217 Solano St. “There is a great vision on the part of the volunteers,” City Manager Steve Kimbrough said. The restored theater is planned to show movies as before, but will also be equipped to stage bands and offer plays and other performing arts, said Tony Cardenas, a member of Friends of the Theatre and Hometown Revitalization and the city’s police chief. The plans include extending the stage by 10 feet, building dressing 8 Corning 2011 The Historic Rodgers Theatre is on Solano Street in Downtown Corning. rooms, restoring and installing restrooms, redoing the floor, adding an office, soundproofing the walls, and installing new seats. Enlarging the stage will eliminate seats, but the theater will still sit nearly 300 people. Despite many upgrades, Cardenas said the groups plan on keeping the building as historically correct as possible. Kimbrough said the project’s general contractor said the building is structurally sound. But Cardenas said it will still need a new roof, sprinkler system and electrical upgrades. Everything must be brought “up to code,” he said. The front of the building will also receive a “facelift” in addition to restoring the marquee, which was done in 2007 to replace the neon lettering. “Some of them worked. Most of them didn’t,” said Kyle Lauderdale, branch manager of PremierWest Bank next door to the theater. Friends of the Theatre is applying for grants and holds fundraisers to support the project.