The historic but long-closed Avalon Theatre in downtown McLean, Texas, was torn down Saturday.
Leigh Ann Isbell of McLean, listed as manager of the nearby Devil’s Rope Barbwire Museum in town, posted this photo on Facebook of the theater being razed, with a “Route 66 Roadside Attraction” sign barely hanging from a nearby utility pole.
She said “safety issues had arose,” prompting the teardown.
There’s little doubting the structure’s safety woes. Route 66 enthusiast Nick Gerlich posted a photo on Facebook in 2014 showing the interior of the theater in dilapidation, with one of the back walls apparently collapsing.
According to the “Roadside Attraction” sign erected about 15 years ago, the Old Texas Route 66 Association had restored the theater’s facade.
According to Cinema Treasures, the Avalon Theatre closed in January 1997, although other sources traced the closure to the 1980s. It contained 450 seats.
The website traced the theater’s origins to the 1930s, but one Cinema Treasures commenter, Joe Vogel, said the Avalon was open even during the late 1920s.
An item in Boxoffice of October 13, 1945, said that its owner of 17 years, E.R. Adams, had recently sold the house. The side walls of the building do look quite old. The zig-zag decoration on the facade was undoubtedly the result of a later remodeling, but I can’t find anything in Boxoffice indicating when that took place.
One of the website’s contributors also linked to a photo of the Avalon Theatre in 1992.
Greg Adair of McLean launched a GoFundMe campaign in 2013 to salvage the theater, but only $350 of the $15,000 goal was raised.
Adair acknowledged four years ago the entire building could not be saved, but he wanted to preserve the front and reconstruct the rest.
According to the National Park Service, the theater sat amid the McLean Commercial Historic District.
The Avalon Theatre stood between the eastbound and westbound lanes of Route 66 of McLean, back when the town was so busy, it split the highway into one-way sections. Those parts of Route 66 still are one-way, but even a vehicle that accidentally goes the wrong direction likely won’t encounter any danger because traffic is so light.
(Image of the Avalon Theatre in April 2017 by Bill Eichelberger via Flickr)
It seems as if, with a bit of good will and imagination, the frontage could have been incorporated into whatever is going to replace the theatre. What is intended to be built in its place? The section to one side of the theatre appears to be empty, with just a high corrugated iron fence shutting it off from the street.