Empire Theatre receives $30,000

Tekoa's Empire Theatre has received a $30,000 grant from the Inland Northwest Community Foundation for restoration of windows which are over the marquee of the theater building on Crosby Street. Laurence Rose, architectural and planning engineer, inspected the windows and came up with a proposal and breakdown on the approximate cost.

Cheryl Morgan, grant writer for the Empire, applied for the grant in December. In mid-February, the group learned it had qualified for the second round of consideration, and received word in the first week of May the theater had been awarded $30,000.

The theater will now work with Rose to prepare for a call for bids on the project which will be paid for with the proceeds from the grant and funds saved for the past two years.

The windows project will be the last of a long-range goal to insulate the theater building.

Over the years, with support from members, the theater has done insulation projects as funds have become available.

Other renovation projects have included lights and fans, remodeling the women’s dressing room, repairing the marquee, new carpet, painting the theater inside and out, a new stage and new dressing room, rewiring the whole building, two new furnaces, a new curtain, reupholstered chairs, new roof and a new light board.

The front windows project carries a high cost estimate because of the desire to display the 1939-1940 era which will take special windows and grouting. Everything that has been done in the theater has been intended to keep with the 1939 era.