Nov. 12, 2007
Portsmouth Landmark Burns
Renovated Columbia Theatre Burns; Owner Spent $2 Million on Renovations; City Loaned $190,000; Developer Had Fought City to Renovate 1910 Palatial Building
By Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network Writer
Portsmouth, OH (HNN) – A large portion of the last remaining former single screen downtown movie theatre burned early Sunday morning, Nov. 11. Four fire departments battled flames starting around 3 a.m.
The Columbia Theatre, 832 Gallia Street, which had been renovated over the course of five years at a cost in the millions, became the Columbia Music Hall in 2006. The Music Hall suffered extensive damage particularly to the stage area, according to Robert Forrey, a retired Shawnee State University professor, who compiled a documentary on the showplace. The professor’s evaluation came from a drive around the structure early Sunday evening. He said the rear roof has collapsed and most of the renovated and “finer” portions have been gutted. He has not been inside the remains of the structure.
Forrey indicated that various townspeople have told him that the owner, Lee Scott, has vowed to rebuild.
A posting on the Hall’s My Space site listed the structure as opening in about 1920, but the http://rivervices.blogspot.com, which is based on Forrey’s research, has a 1916 photo of the marquee and details that it opened in 1910.
The Gallia Street movie house re-opened in 2006 after five years of renovations. Portsmouth Daily Times managing editor Don Willis wrote in April 2006: “This is one of the finest music halls I’ve seen, but it’s one of the most aesthetically pleasing designs of any building I’ve ever seen.” In fact, he remembers that his grandfather --- Bill “Poncho” Willis had been a custodian at the movie theatre and used to let his grandson sneak in to watch movies, such as those with Portsmouth’s own Roy Rogers.
Nearly three-quarters of the seats had been filled for a Thursday, May 30, 2007, when “Bells of Coronado” lit up the screen starring Portsmouth’s native cowboy star, Roy Rogers. This was the first film shown at the Columbia since the early 80s, Lee Scott said. It was shown during the 24th annual Roy Rogers Festival.
The Music Hall began holding a weekly Jamboree on Saturday nights during the spring of 2006. More than 30 new would-be performers auditioned for the initial April 2006 live performance at the renovated theatre.
Prior to the conversion, the Columbia sat empty particularly impacted when the Wheelersburg Cinema 6 multiplex opened. A St. Albans, W.Va. theatre operator attempted to keep the Columbia doors open, but eventually closed due to lack of attendance. During downtown renovations, the other single screener on Gay Street – the LaRoy --- had been razed in 1973 to widen the street. As early as 1908, Portsmouth had the Forrest, Nickleton, Orpheum and Arcana, followed in 1910 by the Airdome and Pastime.
Portsmouth regained a downtown cinema when Republic opened an eight screen multiplex in 2006.
The Columbia Music Hall which was located across from the Southern Ohio Museum, 825 Gallia Street, had been loaned $190,000 by the city of Portsmouth to finish the renovation. The loan came after Lee Scott squabbled with the City of Portsmouth for financial assistance. The loan represented the last piece of the financial scrapings that allowed completion of the project, specifically seating, lighting and sound system. It was in the name of Christine Scott, Lee’s wife who is a Portsmouth attorney.
During Scott’s quest to re-open the Columbia, one mayor balked at his vision, and Scott led the eventual recall of former mayor Greg Bauer.
Forrey, the retired English and Fulbright exchange professor who researched the theatre, wrote that in the 1920s the Columbia stage had been enlarged to accommodate vaudeville acts and orchestras, such as Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians. The theatre in 1929 installed equipment to show the first sound movie --- The Jazz Singer. However, the Columbia had its beginnings as a silent movie house with live performances. Forrey called it, “one of the city’s most important architectural and cultural treasures.” The mood Sunday evening in Portsmouth? “Very depressing,” Forrey said.
His blog details a portion of the battle to save the Columbia. When Scott asked for financial assistance to restore the theatre, Mayor Bauer referred to him as a “convicted felon who served multiple jail sentences for many crimes in the 1980’s.”
“The reason Scott could not get credit, financing or insurance,” Forrey wrote was “not that he was an ex convict but that those who control the economy and city government of Portsmouth were determined that the renovation of the Columbia would fail.”
An article predicting a happy ending appeared in The Preservation Trust prior to the re-opening. J.W. Kelley detailed that “not the mayor, the city council , or any of the many wealthy residents of our area is lifting a finger to help… but I think we are going to have a Hollywood ending , and the bad guys, the unindicted , are not going to do in the good guy. I hope to see a historic old flick in the restored theatre.“ http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arc_911/051402.htm.
Unfortunately, a fully feel good Hollywood ending was not to be, unless the gutted remains can be rebuilt.
Pour the Coal and Gypzy Rose were the last bands to play at the renovated Portsmouth landmark.
(Hail Columbia photo from http://rivervices.blogspot.com/2005/04/hail-columbia.html; Columbia Music Hall photos © Columbia Music Hall.)
Portsmouth Landmark Burns
Renovated Columbia Theatre Burns; Owner Spent $2 Million on Renovations; City Loaned $190,000; Developer Had Fought City to Renovate 1910 Palatial Building
By Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network Writer
Portsmouth, OH (HNN) – A large portion of the last remaining former single screen downtown movie theatre burned early Sunday morning, Nov. 11. Four fire departments battled flames starting around 3 a.m.
The Columbia Theatre, 832 Gallia Street, which had been renovated over the course of five years at a cost in the millions, became the Columbia Music Hall in 2006. The Music Hall suffered extensive damage particularly to the stage area, according to Robert Forrey, a retired Shawnee State University professor, who compiled a documentary on the showplace. The professor’s evaluation came from a drive around the structure early Sunday evening. He said the rear roof has collapsed and most of the renovated and “finer” portions have been gutted. He has not been inside the remains of the structure.
Forrey indicated that various townspeople have told him that the owner, Lee Scott, has vowed to rebuild.
A posting on the Hall’s My Space site listed the structure as opening in about 1920, but the http://rivervices.blogspot.com, which is based on Forrey’s research, has a 1916 photo of the marquee and details that it opened in 1910.
The Gallia Street movie house re-opened in 2006 after five years of renovations. Portsmouth Daily Times managing editor Don Willis wrote in April 2006: “This is one of the finest music halls I’ve seen, but it’s one of the most aesthetically pleasing designs of any building I’ve ever seen.” In fact, he remembers that his grandfather --- Bill “Poncho” Willis had been a custodian at the movie theatre and used to let his grandson sneak in to watch movies, such as those with Portsmouth’s own Roy Rogers.
Nearly three-quarters of the seats had been filled for a Thursday, May 30, 2007, when “Bells of Coronado” lit up the screen starring Portsmouth’s native cowboy star, Roy Rogers. This was the first film shown at the Columbia since the early 80s, Lee Scott said. It was shown during the 24th annual Roy Rogers Festival.
The Music Hall began holding a weekly Jamboree on Saturday nights during the spring of 2006. More than 30 new would-be performers auditioned for the initial April 2006 live performance at the renovated theatre.
Prior to the conversion, the Columbia sat empty particularly impacted when the Wheelersburg Cinema 6 multiplex opened. A St. Albans, W.Va. theatre operator attempted to keep the Columbia doors open, but eventually closed due to lack of attendance. During downtown renovations, the other single screener on Gay Street – the LaRoy --- had been razed in 1973 to widen the street. As early as 1908, Portsmouth had the Forrest, Nickleton, Orpheum and Arcana, followed in 1910 by the Airdome and Pastime.
Portsmouth regained a downtown cinema when Republic opened an eight screen multiplex in 2006.
The Columbia Music Hall which was located across from the Southern Ohio Museum, 825 Gallia Street, had been loaned $190,000 by the city of Portsmouth to finish the renovation. The loan came after Lee Scott squabbled with the City of Portsmouth for financial assistance. The loan represented the last piece of the financial scrapings that allowed completion of the project, specifically seating, lighting and sound system. It was in the name of Christine Scott, Lee’s wife who is a Portsmouth attorney.
During Scott’s quest to re-open the Columbia, one mayor balked at his vision, and Scott led the eventual recall of former mayor Greg Bauer.
Forrey, the retired English and Fulbright exchange professor who researched the theatre, wrote that in the 1920s the Columbia stage had been enlarged to accommodate vaudeville acts and orchestras, such as Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians. The theatre in 1929 installed equipment to show the first sound movie --- The Jazz Singer. However, the Columbia had its beginnings as a silent movie house with live performances. Forrey called it, “one of the city’s most important architectural and cultural treasures.” The mood Sunday evening in Portsmouth? “Very depressing,” Forrey said.
His blog details a portion of the battle to save the Columbia. When Scott asked for financial assistance to restore the theatre, Mayor Bauer referred to him as a “convicted felon who served multiple jail sentences for many crimes in the 1980’s.”
“The reason Scott could not get credit, financing or insurance,” Forrey wrote was “not that he was an ex convict but that those who control the economy and city government of Portsmouth were determined that the renovation of the Columbia would fail.”
An article predicting a happy ending appeared in The Preservation Trust prior to the re-opening. J.W. Kelley detailed that “not the mayor, the city council , or any of the many wealthy residents of our area is lifting a finger to help… but I think we are going to have a Hollywood ending , and the bad guys, the unindicted , are not going to do in the good guy. I hope to see a historic old flick in the restored theatre.“ http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arc_911/051402.htm.
Unfortunately, a fully feel good Hollywood ending was not to be, unless the gutted remains can be rebuilt.
Pour the Coal and Gypzy Rose were the last bands to play at the renovated Portsmouth landmark.
(Hail Columbia photo from http://rivervices.blogspot.com/2005/04/hail-columbia.html; Columbia Music Hall photos © Columbia Music Hall.)
