The historic Gillioz Theatre in downtown Springfield, Missouri, sustained water damage in its lobby and rotunda after a recent rainstorm, and officials are trying to assess the extent of the problem.
Geoff Steele, executive director of the nearly century-old theatre, talked to KY3 in Springfield:
… According to Steele, the Gillioz had never faced Mother Nature’s ire like last Friday when water started cascading from the ceiling like a waterfall in the front part of the building where the lobby and rotunda are located.
“Seeing the theatre taking on water is traumatic,” Steele said. “It’s a sacred space for me, and I know there’s a lot of people in the community who are passionate about it as well.”
On Wednesday, the waters had long since receded, but humidifiers were all along the hallways trying to dry out the venue and prevent mold.
“The damage that we’re dealing with is unseen,” Steele explained. “It’s infrastructure. The plaster on the ceiling, as it’s drying out, is beginning to constrict, and we’re seeing new damage on a daily basis. Part of our blessing is that the theatre is actually constructed out of steel and concrete with plaster over it. If this were built traditionally out of wood, sheetrock, and drywall, we would have had a completely different set of problems.”
The theatre is insured, but it probably won’t be enough to cover all the repairs. The Gillioz’s share of the expense likely will be in the thousands of dollars, and that wasn’t part of the venue’s budget.
The Gillioz launched a fundraising campaign to help defray some of those costs, with a goal of $40,000.
Fortunately, the stage and audience seating area emerged unscathed from the storm because the theater installed a new roof over those areas last month. In fact, the Gillioz has booked five concerts or films this month, plus several dozen more through April.
According to Cinema Treasures, the Gillioz was built by M.E. Gillioz for $300,000. It opened on Oct. 11, 1926, with the film “Take It from Me,” starring Reginald Denny. That was about a month before the U.S. government officially certified U.S. 66.
It closed in 1979, though it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The theater reopened in 2006 after a multimillion-dollar renovation. Robert Low, owner of the Prime Inc. trucking company, bought the theater in 2013. Low leased back the theater to the nonprofit Springfield Landmarks Preservation Trust.
(Image of the Gillioz Theatre in Springfield, Missouri, by Darin House via Flickr)