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South Pittsburg: Fundraising beats deadline for theater renovation contract

By: Ben Benton
(Contact)

Included in this article

Vic Hood
Carolyn Millhiser & Bob Hooke

SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. — Last-minute donations helped the town’s historic preservation society make up a $65,000 shortfall in securing a $590,000 contract for renovations at the Princess Theatre, officials said.

When bids were opened June 19 for phase one of renovations, the lowest price was $108,000 over budget, said Bob Hookey, of the South Pittsburg Historic Preservation Society.

The clock started ticking on the bid with an Aug. 16 guaranteed price deadline, but the community responded quickly, Mr. Hookey said.

“We’ve really had an outpouring from the community and civic organizations that have really helped us,” he said. “We’ve been able to come up with enough funds for the bid.”

Officials signed a contract with Fairview, Tenn.-based Leatherwood Inc. on Aug. 14, he said.

“Meeting this deadline was really important,” he said. South Pittsburg without a Princess is like an otherwise beautiful smile with a missing tooth, Mr. Hookey said.

Climbing construction costs had officials worried that prices would outpace fundraising, he said. The group also faced deadlines to spend grants awarded for the work.

Carolyn Millhiser, secretary for the historical society, said 57 people or organizations gave cash and pledges and brought funding to within $13,000 of the contract price.

“The National Cornbread Festival stepped up and signed a guarantee for any moneys that were needed at the very end of the contract period, giving us a vote of confidence that we can raise this additional $13,000,” Mrs. Millhiser said. The National Cornbread Festival already had donated $100,000, she said.

Mrs. Millhiser said she hoped the first phase of work, mostly on the lower level, will be finished by the next Cornbread Festival.

The Princess Theatre first opened around 1921 as the “Imperial,” soon renamed the “Palace.” The first show was a silent film, “Tank Town Follies,” starring South Pittsburg native Jobyna Ralston, the society’s online records show.

Crowds flocked to films starring Tom Mix, who worked in a cement plant in Richard City before his movie career, society officials said. The last movie at the Princess played in the 1980s, they said.

In the late 1990s, South Pittsburg officials condemned the building and bought it, at the same time forming a commission to pursue restoration.

Some work was done at the beginning with more than $200,000 in donated funds, Mrs. Millhiser said. Organizers bought most of the steel interior supports before prices spiked and some exterior walls and the roof were repaired, she said.

Leatherwood Inc. owner Vic Hood said the theater will be usable by the time cornbread batter starts sizzling in skillets for the national festival April 25 and 26.

“I’ve been kind of following this project for a couple of years,” Mr. Hood said. As a student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga years ago, he often passed through South Pittsburg on his way to archeological sites and thought the Princess was architecturally interesting.

He said the first phase of work will take the theater from a dark, dusty space to an operational facility in a few short months.

“We’re going to be doing a lot of structural things and a lot of mechanical installation,” Mr. Hood said. “We won’t get to do all the finish work. There’ll still be some more of that to do.”

Mrs. Millhiser hopes the second phase of work is not as expensive as the first. The society is ready to start raising money for the next step, she said.

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