It’s unfortunate that our city fathers don’t have the same kind of vision that impresario Salvatore Adorno had at the beginning of the last century.
Erik Hesselberg detailed Adorno’s entrepreneurial and show-biz prowess in a Hartford Courant article Monday.
Adorno built the long-gone Grand Theater on Main Street, and later bought the Capitol Theater from the Saraceno brothers, and made them both successful through the vaudeville and silent and sound film eras.
The Capitol Theater is scheduled for demolition. Any wag in City Hall will drag you to a west-facing window and point at the 90-year old building to show you how the walls are bowing, or that there’s a tree growing from its roof.
That tree has been there for as long as I’ve been in town.
I’ve heard from several sources that the building is beyond saving. I’m a born skeptic, especially when many of those sources are the “knock-it-down-and-put-in-parking-spaces” voices we often hear in Middletown planning circles. This week, some of those same voices have also suggested several North End demolitions to create parking spaces there.
In the case of the Capitol Theater, the half-formed plan is a bit more elaborate, but just a bit. The theater will be leveled to make a bus turnaround. Can’t live without one of those downtown.
Demolition is imminent for “safety” reasons. What if we have another winter like last year? What if it’s hit by an asteroid?
May I remind city fathers that the Capitol Theater was not the building on Main Street that collapsed under four feet of snow.
May I also remind city fathers that if it’s unsafe now, it’s been unsafe for at least a decade, or two. Count the rings on that tree on the roof.
Cast your eyes down Main Street at the spot where the beautiful town hall once stood. What’s there? A paved parking lot. That, unfortunately, is often the extent of creative thinking when anyone suggests knocking down an old building in town.
Why demolition now? Because the city has waited so long to use “federal transportation dollars” that the grant is about to expire. So why not a bus turnaround? That’s about the lamest use of transportation dollars one can imagine. Some city leaders agree.
Is that the best our planners can offer up? If, indeed, the theater cannot be revitalized like other cities have revitalized classic downtown theaters, maybe we should be hearing about a new, modern downtown performance space to take its place.
Isn’t that something that’s missing in the street and business scape of restaurant-heavy downtown Middletown — a performance space?
Still, with the federal dollars breathing down the necks of foot-dragging bureaucrats, the bogey-man of collapsing building ringing in our ears and with the promise of fresh pavement, I suspect it’s curtains for Middletown’s last grand-old lady of the theater.
It is a little ridiculous to criticize our city leaders for not having Sal Adorno's vision. Sal Adorno was a private individual, who invested his own money in his theaters in a time when theaters could be economically successful. That day passed, the theaters closed. In the ensuing decades nothing has changed to make a theater like this economically viable. Anyone with any vision will realize that reopening the buggy whip factory is nothing but a recipe for disaster. So now you want to "save" this building. Why? We have a building that has been unused for decades, that is nothing but an eyesore. In these days of very great needs and very limited resources why should our city leaders use our tax dollars to save this building? Because it is old and 50 years ago it was grand? I applaud the city fathers for having the vision to recognize that the building is beyond any hope of salvation and in the very near future it will have to be dealt with. They have the vision to find a way to deal with the problem in a way that Federal funding can defray the cost to the city, and mass transit can be improved at the same time. Part of vision is recognizing the cold, hard economic facts that exist, and being able to separate your needs from your wants. Government can barely afford to meet our needs, let alone our caviar dreams.
This property is private property, and City does not enjoy the right to develop it as it sees fit. The City's obligation is to see that this building does not endanger the public, and the City is proceeding to fulfill its obligation to insure public safety.
If the city is fulfilling its obligation to see the building does not endanger the public, where has the city been for ten years? Ed
The Palace in Waterbury. The Warner in Torrington. The Infinity Hall in Norfolk. The Garde in New London. All renovated theaters helping in urban revitalization in their towns. You're right that the public shouldn't expect our civic and municipal leaders to have visionary, entrepreneurial insight. Look at the makeup of the Council. How many state, munipal or former state and municipal employees do you count? Not an entrepreneurial soul among them. Ed
By the way, I've eaten dinner, enjoyed a craft brew, visited galleries, heard concerts, seen performances and shopped in many a renovated "buggy whip" factory in cities around the country where the vintage architecture is valued. My company, of which I am an owner (I actually create jobs in CT), is located in a renovated printing plant in Hartford. So much for the recipe for disaster. Ed
That would be a great question for an investigative journalist to make the City answer. Going forward, I made a motion at the Public Works Commission to treat the demolition of the Capitol Theater as an Emergency Project as soon as the Court allows us to proceed. That resolution passed unanimously and will be considered by the Council right after Labor Day.
I also create jobs in Connecticut. My law office is in an 1800's home in New Britain which our firm bought and restored, so I understand the value of restoration. However, when we restored the building we made sure that the restoration was economically worthwhile and we didn't expect the taxpayer to foot the bill. You refer to The Garde, The Warner and Infinity Hall. None were saved by the cities in which they are located. Infinity Hall was purchased and restored by a private developer and the other two were bought and restored by private non-profits. None of these projects arose from entreprenuerial vision from city government, and the Capitol Theater isn't falling down because of a lack of vision on the part of the city. It's falling down because no one thinks it is worthwhile to spend 30 to 50 million dollars to restore a building that can't be economically viable. If you feel that saving the theater is worthwhile step up to the plate and do it. Buy it or set up a non-profit to do so. I am sure that the city and many of its residents would be happy to help out. Of course being the entrepreneur is harder than complaining that no one else has your vision. Incidentally, you state that there is not an entrepreneurial soul in town government, but the mayor is an employer and small businessman, just like yourself. Or is it your position that he has no soul?
Congratulations on restoring a building in my old hometown, New Britain. Since you practice there, you know that a formerly busy and beautiful downtown is a mess, and that the final theater torn down there, The Strand, was replaced by a post-industrial 1970's nightmare, which is now being considered for demolition. As for the theaters you mention, the usual course is for a developer, or a non-profit to take charge. But there is usually a partnership with the city, and a relationship with town planners. I don't think I ever mentioned the taxpayers footing the bill, though we will be footing the bill for its demolition. And we have footed the bill for other Main Street developments. The Capitol didn't become decrepit overnight. It's been that way for at least eleven years I've been in town, and longer, ignored by city fathers. I don't think I accused you of not being entrepreneurial, nor the mayor of not having a soul. Bending my words doesn't change their meaning. I'm wondering what your expertise is in declaring the building an eyesore, and that the building is beyond hope of salvation. Or that it would cost $50 million to renovate. Have you seen an architect or design engineering study that hasn't otherwise been made public? And finally, the old sally "if you feel that saving the theater is worthwhile, step up to the plate," is as malicious as it is tired.
I did not bend your words. I never stated that you accused me of not being entrepreneurial. You stated your bona fides in that area, I stated mine. As to the second part, my attempt at humor failed and I apologize. You stated that there is not an entrepreneurial soul in city government and I pointed out that the mayor as much an entrepreneur as you or I. I should have left it at that. As to the public/private issue, my point here is that all government, not just Middletown, is not well designed to effectively lead on project such as this. The role of government should be to assist and support if it feels it is in the interests of the city to do so, just as was done with the examples that you gave. As to my expertise in declaring the building an eyesore, it is obviously my opinion and my figure of $30-50 million to renovate it is my amateur guess based on the amount spent to renovate the Garde and Palace theaters. I haven't heard any estimate for the cost and If you have a different figure I will stand corrected. As to my comment to step up to the plate, it is my opinion that projects like this only succeed when an extraordinary individual takes the lead and makes it happen by enlisting support from others, including government. I just don't see the point in criticizing our city leaders for not doing something that I don't think any city government can or should do. I shouldn't have personalized that as an attack against you and for that I apologize.