
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 24, 1993                   TAG: 9306240162
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

STATE GRANT TO BE SOUGHT TO FIX PULASKI THEATER

Pulaski County will apply for a $40,000 state rural development grant as seed money to restore the 82-year-old Pulaski Theater building as a civic and performing arts center.

The push for the development money is coming from Friends of the Pulaski Theater, a group that organized informally earlier this year to save the building.

Pulaski Town Council, at a budget session Tuesday, agreed to authorize Mayor Gary Hancock to sign a letter in support of the grant and theater project.

John Sadler, one of the Friends group, said preservation of the building would benefit the town and the county, so both governments will be asked to help.

The building needs some emergency roof repairs soon to keep it from serious deterioration. Eventually it will need a new roof.

Sadler said the seed money can provide matching funds for other grants to help fund the rest of the restoration needs.

The building was donated to the county after it stopped operating as a movie theater in 1991. The owners offered it first to the town, which declined.

The county had considered using it for temporary office or court facilities while county buildings were being expanded and renovated, but ended up making other arrangements for temporary court and office space.

The Board of Supervisors also has considered tearing down the building and using the space on Main Street in downtown Pulaski for parking.

Members of the Friends group maintain that this would be a major loss to downtown Pulaski.

They propose saving it for a multipurpose civic hall, in keeping with downtown revitalization efforts. They say it could be used for events to draw more visitors downtown to support existing businesses and the new antiques, art and music stores opened in recent months.

Suggested activities for the restored theater include community gatherings, concerts and other musical events, live theatrical productions, lectures, films, children's programs and special Pulaski Main Street Inc. events.

The building, originally called the Elks Theater, opened in 1911 as a vaudeville house for concerts and traveling productions. It became a store about 20 years later, and then a movie theater in the late 1930s until it shut down.

by CNB