Wednesday, January 05, 2000
Theaters only one act in Cleveland rebirth
BY JANELLE GELFAND
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The renovation of Severance Hall is just one drop in a sea of development during the past 15 years in Cleveland.
One of the most impressive projects is a complex of four — soon to be five — historic theaters that in the early '70s had been destined for the wrecking ball.
Playhouse Square Center, the largest theater restoration project in the world, is the largest performing arts complex outside of New York. It is credited with being a catalyst for Cleveland's economic boom in the mid-1980s. Since then, more than $1 billion has been pumped into developing a one-mile radius surrounding the downtown theaters.
Playhouse Square Foundation, a not-for-profit, restores and operates Playhouse Square Center. It includes four contiguous theaters, the 14-story Wyndham Hotel and a large urban park called Star Plaza.
The foundation created a master plan for the theater district, gradually buying and renovating four 1920s-era movie and vaudeville palaces: the Ohio, State, Palace and Allen theaters. In August, the foundation acquired the Hanna Theatre and nearby properties, which it plans to develop.
When the playhouses flourished in the early 1920s, Cleveland was the sixth largest metropolis in America, and John D. Rockefeller ran Standard Oil a few miles west of the district. There were 12 working playhouses, and a line of mansions known as “Millionaire's Row” stretched for five miles east from the theater district to University Circle.
By the '60s, downtown Cleveland was deserted, and the theaters were in ruin. Just as they were scheduled for demolition, an article in The Plain Dealer triggered a public outcry.
The project started with a grass-roots campaign to restore the theaters on a shoestring budget. Today, the theater district has created 1,700 new jobs, entertains more than a million people each year and spins off $50 million to the city annually.
The fourth theater to be restored, the Allen, opened in October 1998, in time for the Cleveland Orchestra to use it as a temporary home while Severance Hall was under construction.
Other Cleveland projects since 1984 include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum; Tower City Center; Gateway Stadium and Gund Arena; restoration of the Historic Warehouse District; 15 new night clubs in the “Flats” riverfront district; several new office buildings, including One Cleveland Center; and the Great Lakes Museum of Science and Technology.
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