MILBRIDGE, Maine — Audience cheers might bring the house down at a local movie venue next summer, but only if the longtime movie house on the central village property actually gets demolished first.
According to an official with the nonprofit that now owns the decrepit Milbridge Theatre, the group hopes to screen movies next summer at the Route 1 site, but not in the current building or in a new one.
Crystal Hitchings said Wednesday that Gateway:Milbridge hopes to demolish the sagging structure and show outdoor summer films on the property while the group raises money for a new construction project.
“It’s created a hole in the middle of town,” Hitchings, chairman of the board of directors for Gateway:Milbridge, said of the closure of the theater two years ago.
Gateway:Milbridge took ownership of the property this past August from Rich Parsons, who inherited the property when his older brother, Dave Parsons, died in December 2014. Dave Parsons owned and ran the small theater as a movie house from 1978 until his death.
The closure of the movie theater illustrates a struggle faced by many small towns in Maine, along the coast and elsewhere, in the increasingly global economy. In some places it is highlighted by the closure of a major employer such as a paper mill, while in others, it’s the slow migration of year-round residents and businesses out of town as better-heeled summer visitors buy up the increasingly expensive residential real estate.
In small towns throughout the country, competition from larger, national retail chains and big-box stores have forced many local shops to close while, in the case of movie theaters, changes in technology and customer viewing habits have been a challenge for independent owner-operators to overcome.
Saving the local theater property, Hitchings said, is a way to help preserve the small coastal community and to protect it from the adverse effects of these wider societal changes.
“There are so many memories for people that have occurred at this theater,” she said, adding that some involve first dates or kisses. “It’s very much a part of the fabric of the community.”
Gateway:Milbridge has yet to pay Rich Parsons the full $50,000 sale price for the property and, having raised $18,000, still has $32,000 to go.
Hitchings said the group in October was awarded a $5,000 matching grant from Maine Community Foundation and already has raised the matching funds to earn the grant.
The board has decided not to do any demolition at the site until the note is paid off in full, the deadline for which is the summer of 2019, she said.
Whether to demolish the entire building or to try to keep at least part of the front part of the structure has not been decided, Hitchings said. She said there are “differences of opinion” about whether the front part of the old theater should be saved. The rear portion, where the movie screen and theater seating is, she said, has leaks and is not structurally sound.
“That’s been a challenge for us,” Hitchings said of deciding whether to try to keep any of the existing structure.
Gateway:Milbridge has estimated that, to build a new theater that can start hosting at least a preliminary lineup of programs will cost about $450,000.
Realizing the full potential of a new theater facility on the site, Hitchings said, likely will require greater capital investment.
“I think it’s safe to say the building will cost us more than that to get us to where we want to be,” she said.
