Yesterday, since my mom was in town and we had nothing planned for Memorial Day, we went to see the newly renovated and opened Lincoln Theater in the King-Lincoln District, who was having a free open house for the community after just opening on Thursday. The theater was originally opened in 1928 as the Ogden Theater and was meant to fulfill the need for an African-American focused entertainment center. It was designed with an Egyptian Revival style that is strikingly different than any of the other CAPA theaters downtown. Originally, it played films and brought in vaudeville and musical performances. It was renamed the Lincoln Theater in 1939 and mostly operated as a movie theater through the 1960s, though occasionally it showcased musical artists like Nancy Wilson and Count Basie. It closed in the early 1970s but has been undergoing various restoration projects for the past 20 years, and was successful in gaining the support of the City of Columbus and Mayor Coleman and teamed with local businesses to help fund a total overhaul of the entire theater. After chatting with the man behind most of the major renovations, we learned that the inside of the theater was a disaster when they started the project. He said the stage was almost completely rotted through and wasn’t safe to stand on as well as some of the pillars on the stage being completely destroyed and rotten. They made sure to maintain the original style of the decorations inside and worked off of old plans and schematics. The theater will also be run by CAPA and focus on jazz and blues along with other performing arts.
I’ll be honest, the theater is very gorgeous. It’s not as ornate perhaps as the Ohio Theater or the Southern, but the Egyptian theme is so unique to me. It’s fairly small, maybe close in size to the Southern (an usher told me it has about 500 or so seats), which makes it a really cozy space. There’s literally no bad seat in the house. Even the balcony is relatively close to the stage and gives a really breathtaking view of the whole space.
Like the other theaters, there were lots of surprising little details everywhere, even on the sides of seats.
Off the balcony is a curvy side waiting area that leads to an outdoor balcony the looks off onto a parking lot and large apartment building that looked to be undergoing renovations itself.
There are also stairs off the waiting area that go up several flights to a floor that will be operated as a Jazz Center, which will offer music education programs, lessons, informal performance spaces and a recording studio.
The first room is a comfortable parents waiting room followed by a room filled with pianos hooked up to keyboards (reminds me of trying to figure out how to use midi back in my childhood piano playing years!). Lots of kids were already trying out the equipment and I was almost jealous of the kids that get to take advantage of this kind of awesome space and technology.
There was another practice room that held a drum kit and an old-fashioned organ.
Next was a recording studio and across the way was a large space where they had DJ BHB (Brothers Helping Brothers) set up giving a demo on how technology has changed being a DJ and explaining some of the programs he uses when he does gigs. He also gave a really cool demonstration of his work, using hip-hip and blues beats. He was pretty awesome and I kind of wish I had enough money that I could hire him to DJ something. He also explained his philosophy behind DJ-ing and hip-hop music and said if there was enough demand, he may be giving DJ lessons at the theater in the future
Finally there were stairs leading to a second floor ballroom area that I heard would be used for a few different things, like a rented space for events and parties as well as a dance rehearsal space. By the time we made it down there, the Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra was playing, so we got to enjoy an unexpected concert. Actually the performance made me really miss playing an instrument and a friend suggested I look up the New Albany community band. I do have my dusty Buffet clarinet in the basement, I need to buy some new reeds and see if I can remember how to read music again :-X
Overall what made me so excited about this theater is that it really seems focused on making it a community space. Unlike the theaters downtown, the Lincoln has made an effort to incorporate educational music space inside the theater itself which I feel will hopefully increase community involvement. And especially with lots of music programs getting cut from school budgets, hopefully it will also encourage kids to stick with music and give them an opportunity for a creative outlet. I know my own experience being involved in band for 8 years was a really important part of my life and I think I could actually still pick up my clarinet and be able to read and play some simple pieces again (we’ll see…)
Overall, he KLD itself reminds me of Old Towne East, in that there’s a lot of effort to revitalize the area and bring back some of the old spirit, especially because of their history as a destination for jazz and entertainment. I know a lot of people, both Mayor Coleman and residents/community leaders are hoping that the reopening of the theater will draw a lot of people in and give the area a cultural renaissance. However, after reading last week’s Dispatch article about the theater reopening, it seems like there isn’t any other money available to make some basic infrastructure improvements beyond what was allocated to the theater renovation.
“The city has no money earmarked to resurface streets or install new streetlights to make the area more attractive. Columbus contributed $6.3 million to the theater project. Much of E. Long Street, the Lincoln’s home, remains desolate. A boarded-up nursing home and vacant church are reminders that there is a lot of work to do. Another reminder is the vacant Poindexter Tower, a monument to classic urban blight. The Franklin County treasurer’s office is winding through a slow, cumbersome process of foreclosing on each of the 101 units before going to court to tear it down. And no dirt has been turned at the site of the Whitney, a $6.4 million, 28-unit condominium complex that is supposed to be built at the site of the former crime-plagued Whitney Young apartments.”
I really hope that somewhere in all this stimulus money being spent, a little will go to the KLD to help give residents basic health and safety services like better roads and lighting and getting rid of boarded up urban blight. It seems like the residents are really trying to invest in the area and with a little help from the local government and the theater, I think it’s a really big start.
The rest of the King-Lincoln Dispatch article is here
More pictures from the Lincoln Theater under the cut.
