Texas Theatre will undergo renovation
Posted on 04/28/2002 4:42:23 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Texas Theatre will undergo renovation
Lee Harvey Oswald was captured at Oak Cliff landmark in 1963
04/28/2002
The facade of the Texas Theatre looked unassuming with sun-bleached stars bearing its name hanging just above the front doors.
But inside, stage lights illuminated the faded red seats for the first time in more than six years as about 100 people gathered to look at renovation plans for the historic theater.
Organizers of the Saturday evening event said that the restoration of the building, on Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff, carried with it the possibility of revitalizing business, the arts and residential growth.
"We've contracted with Dallas Summer Musicals to manage this on a day-to-day basis," said Monte Anderson, chairman of the Texas Theatre Committee. "There is a trend now of people moving back here, and we're seeing a huge movement of people who want to live in the city rather than the suburbs."
Mr. Anderson and Michael Jenkins, president of Dallas Summer Musicals, ceremoniously smacked holes through stucco to reveal the theater's original walls.
Place in history
The theater became famous as the site where Lee Harvey Oswald was captured in 1963 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
In 1965, the building's owners covered its elaborate walls with the stucco in an effort to modernize the interior.
The Oak Cliff Foundation bought the theater in August 2001 and began planning to renovate the building and open it for stage productions and films.
"We've waited for this for so long," said Mr. Anderson, an Oak Cliff native.
"Every decade for the last 30 years, the people in Oak Cliff thought this renaissance was going to happen. This could look like the Oak Cliff version of Greenville Avenue."
Dallas Summer Musicals, the city of Dallas, the Oak Cliff Foundation and the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce are joining to restore the theater.
Butch Burroughs, who worked at the theater for 35 years, was working the day Mr. Oswald was captured and said that was easily the most memorable day of his career there.
"They came in from both sides of the theater looking for him," Mr. Burroughs said.
He and his wife, Maxine, attended Saturday's renovation bash.
"We closed it down in 1989," said Mrs. Burroughs, who worked at the theater for 14 years. "We were really upset at the time and tried to get volunteers together to try and save it."
She said she was happy to see the renewed interest in the theater.
'Atmospheric theater'
The building opened in 1931 and featured a Venetian court design, air conditioning and good acoustics.
"What's exciting is that it appears most of the original detail is intact and undamaged," said Gordon Marchant, project manager for Komatsu Architecture Inc., a Fort Worth-based firm hired for the project. "It was an atmospheric theater."
He said the seating and much of the original structure would be refurbished.
The first phase of the project is scheduled to begin in June and will cost about $1.3 million. The cost of future phases will depend on how much money is raised, organizers said.
"We have a very aggressive construction schedule," said Ninette McDonald, president of the Oak Cliff Foundation.
Programming is expected to begin by Jan. 1.
Google Search: "Texas Theatre Photo Oswald"
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=Texas+Theatre+Photo+Oswald
The Dallas Morning News: JFK Home
http://www.dallasnews.com/specialreports/2000/jfk/index.shtml
Oswald arrested/Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.
This 13 year old well built boy has superior mental resources and functions only slightlyOswald's mother, Marguerite Oswald insisted that Lee had had a normal childhood.
below his capacity level in spite of chronic truancy from school which brought him into
Youth House. No finding of neurological impairment or psychotic mental changes could
be made. Lee has to be diagnosed as "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid
features and passive--aggressive tendencies." Lee has to be seen as an emotionally, quite
disturbed youngster who suffers under the impact of really existing emotional isolation
and deprivation, lack of affection, absence of family life and rejection by a self involved
and conflicted mother.
(Warren Commission Report, p. 380)
524 594
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