Dixie reborn

Lights go up on Ruston theatre

By Angelle Bergeron

Since the early 1990s the Dixie Theatre in downtown Ruston has been "dark," as they say in theater lingo.

The ghosts of acts from the Vaudeville era may have wandered the empty halls and strains of the long-gone pipe organ that once accompanied silent films may have floated on the still, dusty air.

But the heart of the Dixie had stopped beating years ago and the flesh was slowly deteriorating until some local citizens decided to pump new life into the old landmark.

In December, Lincoln Builders of Ruston completed the $1.6 million renovation/restoration of what was once and likely again will be the cultural/community center for north central Louisiana.

Members of the Dixie Center for the Arts Inc. obtained non-profit status, raised money and renovated the theatre to bring the arts back to the people.

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"The organization was put together in an effort to save the old theater," said Tommy Folk, owner's representative on the project. The city of Ruston was a model for other old-town restoration efforts made possible by Louisiana's Main Street Program, Folk said.

"A lady named Linda Graham, the Main Street coordinator for Ruston, put together a group to buy the old theater with the intent of restoring it to make a home for the arts in southwest Louisiana."

By 1995, the group had begun working with the architectural firm Westlake Reed Leskosky of Cleveland, Ohio. The firm, which also has offices in Washington, D. C., and Phoenix, Ariz., is nationally known for its restoration of historic theaters.

"They worked with them on various schemes and, in the meantime, they were raising money," Folk said. The non-profit group received a capitol outlay grant from the state, but was required to come up with $838,000 in local match funds. In March 2004 the project was put out for bid and every contractor came in over budget.

That's why Scotty Morehead said the bid was both public and negotiated.

"We were the lowest, so they negotiated with us," said Morehead, who served the dual role of project manager and superintendent for Lincoln Builders. "I was able to work more closely with the owners as far as keeping up with cost," he said. "When we would run into problems, it saved us one less person in our office having to take care of things."

Lincoln began work December 2004 on what Morehead described as primarily an interior remodel.

"We didn't do a whole lot on the building or structure itself, like taking down walls," Morehead said. "We did selected demo and patched and refinished it."

Originally built in 1928 as the New Astor Theater, the original façade and interior were remodeled when the building was taken over by the Dixie Theatre Corp. of New Orleans in 1937, said Paul Siemborski, associate principal for the architectural firm.

The theatre underwent extensive renovations in 1956 and 1968 but still retains enough significant historic features to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"The balcony is reinforced concrete, as is most of the stage floor, so the structure was in really good shape," Folk said. "All the infrastructure was way out of code, so we replaced the electrical, plumbing and mechanical."

Most of the restoration work involved patching plaster and ceramic tile. Lincoln hired a specialty contractor, Stagelight Inc., to install the modern theatre lighting equipment.

The contractor met one challenge while trying to install the beams needed to support stage rigging.

"The wall we needed to attach to is a load-bearing bracing wall made of clay block, which is very brittle and hard to attach things to," Morehead said. "Putting beam pockets in there took some work. The material was too brittle to use the modern method you generally use on concrete block. We had to take out an oversized area and fill it back in with concrete blocks so we could have places to attach things to."

Another challenge, which caused some delays in the schedule, was remodeling a new steel framework support for the rooftop air conditioning system.

"When we got up there to do some work we found the area where they had it sitting wasn't as structurally sound for weight as they thought," Morehead said. The framework was re-designed to rest on bow trusses instead of mounting from parapet to parapet.

The theatre's second balcony, historically significant because it was originally designed as a separate seating area for African Americans with a separate stairwell and ticket office, has been transformed into the lighting, sound and audio control area.

The low, concrete dividing wall which separated whites from blacks in the theatre, will remain as a reminder of a past that doesn't bear repeating, Folk said.

Although historically significant, the Dixie is not ostentatious by any means.

"In terms of the design of the building, it is a rather ordinary design, but because it was the only performing arts facility in the parish and catered to other communities, its significance goes beyond the building," Siemborski said. "I'm not going to tell you it has the most unusual paint scheme, façade or light fixtures, but it was a large structure built in a rather rural area and was a gathering place for Lincoln parish and north central Louisiana."

The Dixie Center for the Arts' limited budget restricted the architect's changes to primarily functional aspects that would restore it to a working theatre, Siemborski said.

"What is significant is that you are taking a theater that was dark and bringing it back on line, and the stage will have full theatrical systems to host a myriad of events."