Preserving the Lyric

tonight is our season ending program for spring 2018 we will not have another program until September I hope all of you will come out for that we have some wonderful programs planned for next year before this season is over though we have another event on Saturday May 12th that's this Saturday we are having Stewart Heritage day in Downtown Stuart put on by Stewart Main Street and with our help there will be houses open all along Seminole and you can come to the museum and get a map and go by trolley you can walk down the Riverwalk you can go any way you want to go they will be open from 10 to 2. right now

we have the old Colorado Inn open we have the Owl House open we have 22 Seminole Street which is the office for the new condos that are going in across the street and we also have the blue house we're hoping very to have the Lions house open so there will be a lot to see including the museum I want to take the time to thank my board and the volunteers they've done a fantastic job we've had one heck of a season we really had the visitors this year so thanks to all of them you may applaud for them The Lyric Theater is very special to me I've been coming here since I was a small

child but my grandfather was the contractor who built it and my dad and my uncle worked on it and it's been 93 years ago and Kai had a little trouble the other day one of the balconies kind of fell off and she asked me to call my grandfather and tell him he needed to come fix it I don't think that's going to happen before starting the program and Kai will come out and introduce her guest I was asked to kind of bring up to date up to the time of closing from when the theater was built it was built in 1925 opened in March of 1926 and it was a movie theater I don't remember

live shows being here very often but I suppose they did have some back at that time but it was Mo it was a movie theater um in 1928 the hurricane came through and blew off the penthouse on top it did not damage all of the rock the Coquina Rock and the stucco but the penthouse was built of wood and it did blow it off I cannot find any information on who lived up there or why it was added but we do know that it was Our Youth and most of you out there will know what I'm talking about spent their Saturdays in this theater Gloria told me today it costs 14 cents I don't remember

what it costs but I know it wasn't much because all four of us could get in and we had popcorn and coke and candy and nowadays it would take a week's salary to do that uh the the ticket booth was out here in what is now the lobby and I know it changed many times over the years that we came but we came every Saturday and we watched the first thing we watched was the news and we were talking about that too and I don't remember we did not have television I don't remember ever seeing any news except what we saw in here before the cartoon and before the features we had Roy Rogers and

Dale Evans Gene Autry hop along Cassidy many many westerns we also as we got older we began to get Elvis and Teen Idols and then Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and then we got old enough to come on Saturday night instead of coming during the day how many of you came to movies in this theater as children or adults there's still a lot of us we all came to Downtown Stuart next door was the greens Dry Goods greens department store the dime store across the street if you were really lucky was the Stewart department store and the Rexall Drug was right down the street where you could go for ice cream it was a wonderful

place for a child we I have to remind myself I don't actually remember when the lyric closed I know the Mayfair was open in the 70s I really couldn't tell you that and we looked for it today and Kai may know now she may have found it but I know it was in the 70s and the 80s and we loved this place and we still do and so from then on the people that are here now started the preservation of the lyric after that time when it we went to the Mayfair and the lyric eventually came a church and there is some people here that were highly involved in revitalizing the lyric into what it

is today and it is absolutely gorgeous I just love it so I'm going to call a lady who I think a lot of she is the executive director of The Lyric Theater and has done a wonderful job and she's really studied for this tonight so let's all welcome Kai Fontaine thank you Mary what an incredible history and to know that our executive director of our Stewart Heritage Museum was the granddaughter of the fine gentleman who constructed The Lyric Theater what an awesome connection to make again I'm Kai Fontaine I'm the I'm privileged to be the executive director of this fine establishment organization and historic structure located here in Downtown Stuart which really provides a wonderful

programming and cultural experience for our community but tonight it's more important and it's my honor and my pleasure to introduce you to this panel of these distinguished gentlemen who really played the major role in preserving the lyric that we know here today I'd like to first start with Roy laycock Roy grew up in Muncie Indiana and went to the University of Miami to study sociology and psychology in 1954. after college he worked as a pharmaceutical drug rep and worked for an insurance agency Mr laycock became a realtor at the city dock on First Street and bought the first ocean lot for 12 500 and built a beach home at 963 MacArthur Boulevard in 1970. he

was the owner of Todd's restaurant the former royal castle and the owner of the White City Mercantile in White City on Midway Road in 1990 he started law school at the age of 55 and graduated at age 60. Roy is currently a realtor in Sundance Utah and if I might personally add to his bio he was the crazy hair brain idea that saw The Lyric Theater and said we gotta save that building today to his right is Richard Geisinger Jr Richard is a certified general contractor and real estate broker he has been involved in construction retail sales and development of the residential and Commercial Real Estate throughout his career Richard is known for his attention

to detail when it involves real estate development and Design in addition to teaching real estate law Richard has sat on many real estate related committees and has served two separate terms as the president of the Realtor Association of Martin County he was also voted realtor of the year in 2004. Richard has been heavily involved in the community he is a charter member and past president of the YMCA of the Treasure Coast the Center for the Arts and served as president of The Lyric Theater from 1988 to 1992. if I'm correct that was the first president of friends of the lyric Incorporated oh I'm sorry our attorney has corrected me second president recently he has served

as president of the Martin County taxpayers Association and in that capacity he has written numerous articles for the Stewart news on a variety of topics please welcome Richard is right our attorney I referenced Bob Burson Bob has practiced transactional law on the Treasure Coast since December 1976 following graduation from the University of Florida's College of Law all you Gator fans go ahead transactional law as he's quoted sometimes referred to as dirt and death law includes real estate transactions business transactions and includes the purchase and sale of businesses Wills trusts and probate Bob is an avid gator having earned a bsba degree with honors from UF in 1973 and Juris doctorate from UF in 1976. he

is board certified by the Florida bar in the area of real estate law and has an AV rating by the Martindale Hubble he is a member of the Florida bar and the American Bar and the Martin County Bar Association and is Charter and current member of the real property Council of Martin County his community and service includes about 20 years on the board of the lyric including serving as Charter director as secretary for several terms and as president from 1999 to 2001. Bob has been an active member of the Kiwanis Club of Stuart for 39 years and served almost all Club positions he is currently the secretary-elect website editor Club historian and his chairman of

the annual pancakes and reading in the park he was involved in the Special Olympics both locally and on the state level for almost 20 years he has also served as Charter director as secretary and as the 1996 through 1998 president of the keep Martin beautiful Bob is an active amateur photographer and collects old photography and video equipment and Bob has been married to his high school sweetheart Joe for 45 years please welcome Bob he's right at the end and saving the best for last Maybe we'll leave that to your questioning Mike braid AKA as many of you kind of in the downtown fabric now kind of know him as a mayor of Downtown Stuart Mike

braid moved from Brooklyn to Long Island with the help of his parents at the age of three Mr braid graduated from East Meadow High School on Long Island gotta say that right for the long Islanders in 1967 and from St John's University in Queens New York in 1971. he worked for 25 years in the city of New York as a general contractor working often on Landmark buildings Mr braid was active in the industry and Community Affairs New York serving for 15 years as chairman of the contractors and suppliers of the Associated Builders and owners of the greater New York area vice president of the New York State Builders Association for seven years and nearly 10

years as a board member of the National Association of home builders and served by appointment to an 18-member committee representing over 90 000 contractors Nationwide in 1995 Mike purchased a home in Stuart and permanently relocated here in 2000. please allow me to welcome you Mike braid to the stage very recently The Lyric Theater received a letter I'd love to read that letter to you today dear Queen Lyrica AKA The Lyric Theater it's Roy laycock remember me we were good friends back in the late 80s and while I have visited you a few times I have not bothered to write please forgive me in recent years as a realtor in Utah I have taken to writing

letters to buildings I believe structures have a life force and a personality just like we humans I certainly have an emotional attachment to you as I do to my human friends I have written Epistles to a little Vintage Church in North Carolina a Rocky Mountain Home in Sundance and a number of other places to which I am deeply attached sometimes they write me back my message is prompted by an invitation from friends of yours to return to Stuart and participate in a forum about the latest chapter in your long and illustrious life to that end I would like to ask you to remember with me in that time in 1987. when you were coupled with

a new life in Christ Church they wish to build a new sanctuary in Palm City and were seeking a dowry from someone to become your new partner I was a local realtor and a preservationist participating in an effort to restore the downtown it occurred to me that you and the community would make a wonderful couple I proposed as much to you and the church they were enthusiastic as you were we drafted a commitment agreement humans call it a contract and you and your new partner the community began life together I shall be forever proud of my limited role in your marriage I am so pleased that you have now been together for over 30 years

I have so many wonderful memories from that time climbing in the shrouds on your stage going to the rooftop and wishing to have a restaurant there and exploring all of the your nooks and crannies you are indeed a majestic but humble being I am so honored to call you friend I am so looking forward to once again being in your presence and discussing with others your iconic role in the community I envy your constant rebirth and your longevity you were around before me and it is my hope that you endure long after my passing maybe this letter should remain our secret I am out of an age of suspected dementia I know you are extremely

busy but a brief response would be appreciated your dear friend now and always Roy I am humbled to be asked to be here this evening uh as you all know I'm only one of hundreds and hundreds of people who have given time energy and money to uh make the lyrics survive what kind of failed to tell you is that I got a response from The Lyric Theater I would share it with you 17 April 2018. hi Roy sure I remember you your name is memorialized on one of my seats I am glad that you are coming back to see me doesn't seem possible that it has been more than 30 years since you were involved

in my world I appreciate that you recognize that I'm not just an inanimate object without thoughts or feelings but a living and viable member of the downtown I do have a longevity potential that exceeds yours but I am handicapped by being immobile and mute I am dependent on you and others to voice my message I am looking forward to the event on May the 8th interested in what you and other friends have to say about me I'm a bit vain as I think you know I can vividly recall my grand opening back in the 20s I was a pretty fancy lady then sure glad to have had a facelift recently I am so privileged to

have observed and participated in nearly A Century Of Life on the St Lucie I hope you and your friends will plan another event and discuss the happenings of my youth I understand that you are guiding a workshop in Utah about riding one's life story since I obviously cannot do my own I thought you might encourage some talented individual to write and publish a narrative about me also recently I have become aware of and listened to a lot of podcasts do you think there could be a voice of the lyric interviewing coming performers and telling stories about me I was amused by you calling me Queen Lyrica I think of myself more as a mother than

a queen I feel responsibility to look after all the friends of the lyric when you are in town we shall share a leader of Dom perion in The Green Room looking forward to it your Forever friend mother Larry amazing in or about 1978 the Stuart City commission created an ad hoc Community Committee called the community redevelopment agency I believe to study the possible preservation and restoration of Downtown Stuart we decided and I became the chairman of that committee we decided to have a charette and in case you're not familiar with the term it's somewhat of an architectural term about creating a symposium to study a particular developmental project these are some of the words that

I shared at that charette in 1978. the Redevelopment effort in Downtown Stuart can be characterized in two words potential and inertia let's talk about potential do we have it you bet we do Stewart is a Scenic Waterfront Community with an ideal climate attracting people from both North and South I-95 is finally coming to our town from both directions the long proposed Regional mall is under construction the courthouse is still downtown the New York Mets are coming to South St Lucie County population forecasts predict our area to be one of the fastest growing in the country through the balance of the century there is even hope for a new Roosevelt bridge in the not too distant

future all these factors are working to create a new Urban environment which should precipitate the survival and prosperity of Downtown Stuart how about inertia do we have it I think so it could be said that we've always been for progress as long as it didn't cost anything and it didn't change anything when considering possible courses of action one should always consider the possibility of doing nothing it requires minimal time and expense and it frequently works is an option which our town has developed and perfected this is not necessarily bad many communities who consider themselves Progressive have made multi-million dollar mistakes in their downtown area to date we have done nothing wrong because we have done

nothing let me take you back to the Ambiance of 1978 in Downtown Stuart Florida and I'm not sure that I can see a show of hands but I'm curious about how many of you lived in Stuart Florida in 1978. yeah that's better than I expected I guess I don't need to take you all back but if you didn't uh Downtown Stuart was in its in its doldrums it was said that you could fire off a cannon on Osceola and not hit anybody there were a segment of the population that uh thought the downtown should be destroyed the courthouse should move to the suburbs and any Art Center that we created should be brand new and

in the suburbs as well we had a hardcore group of preservations who did not agree with that philosophy and we attempted to on numerous occasions to have art shows and different events that would draw the public to Downtown Stuart we were mostly unsuccessful that is until one fall just prior to school someone said let's have a battle of the bands and we did we had a battle of the bands and I can't tell you why but instead of a hundred people coming to Downtown Stuart we had an excess of two thousand but we were logistically limited and we ran out of beer but we were exuberant because the community excuse me the community had exhibited

to the enthusiasm for the Redevelopment of the downtown with this is a backdrop I had this crazy idea that uh well let me back up just a bit I I recall vividly walking out of my office and my office mate Leo galanti saying to me hey Roy where you going and I said I think I'll go buy The Lyric Theater he said do you have any money and I said no but I as a realtor I had been able to Envision the downtown shopping area as a boutique shopping mall well I had pretty much been able to Envision what it is today if I may brag a bit and and additionally that The Lyric Theater

was the the potential anchor for that shopping area and uh and consequently I drafted a contract the second thing being a realtor I knew that the first step in the acquisition of property was to gain control of the property which is usually done by by contract uh and I so I came that afternoon to meet with the new life in Christ Church the president owners of the theater and I was let me give credit where credit's due the church immediately recognized that there were not too many purchasers of all downtown theaters and they also of course realized the public benefit of what I was proposing and I made it clear to them that even though

the contract was in my name or as a signs uh that that the uh the goal was to purchase the theater and transfer it to a 501 C3 corporation uh known as the friends of the lyric there were a couple of issues in the contract that were critical they allowed us a six-month closing date and they allowed us use of the theater during the times that the church wasn't using it for fundraising purposes and uh they also made the five thousand dollar earnest money deposit refundable well I didn't have five thousand dollars as I had told Leo uh but I put five hundred dollars in the Hat and set out Osceola Street uh to uh

gaze jewelry the the uh and and the retailers and Bob Burson attorney uh and got nine individuals or entities who would uh put 500 in the hat that afternoon and we had a consummated contract we called a press conference and we advised the community what we planned to do and uh the acquisition and let me emphasize that there are two phases to this process acquisition and operation and I being a realtor was all about the acquisition not about the operation and I have people here gentlemen here with me this evening that are going to talk about the operation of the theater let me close by saying this story is better an incident and a much

larger and more important narrative the big story takes place over years and is about the subsequent preservation and operation of the Larry it involves hundreds of people too many to name stepping forward and contributing their knowledge and skill as needed to make the lyric the icon that it is today these folk did not seek a claim nor recognition they unselfishly gave of themselves in a community effort that should make us all proud any periodic happening to honor the lyrics should not be viewed as a culmination but merely as a milestone the process of preservation is continually fragile its strength is derived only from the courage and perseverance of those who Revere and practice it today

we are invited to remember tomorrow our ongoing commitment of time and energy will be required to ensure that the lyric May long endure thank you foreign my name is Richard Geisinger and I guess I should publicly recognize Roy because without Roy we probably wouldn't be here Roy's vision and a couple phone calls got us all involved and it was kind of interesting I can actually remember the day Roy called me up and said hey Richard I got this contract on the lyric and uh we need to go to the bank and borrow some money are you in and and uh long story short said yes right um I've had very many people ask me what

was it like uh back then trying to not only acquire but to run the theater and and when I started thinking about making this presentation there's really two words that come to mind and it's bittersweet and and I think that probably most of the board members of that time would maybe say the same thing um it wasn't very glamorous the downtown was in such disrepair that vacancies were probably up around 80 or 90 percent and when we announced that we were going to do this people questioned why they would want to give money to a downtown that was in disrepair in a building that was in disrepair because of a dream and a vision and

it really took a lot of passion to get through that initial time just a couple stories we realized right away that none of us knew how to operate a theater and we just knew that we needed to preserve it because we felt uh in the long term it would add to what I referred to now as the jewel of Martin County which I think the downtown is we um we had some friends that were in the Arts World Babs case Ginger Baldwin Dottie a whole bunch of volunteers that came in and helped us and we knew that we had to get out and and present we knew we had to hire artists and and bring

them in and since we were very low on cash we were very fearful of making mistakes so I I was telling this to the group last night it was the first rather large event we had was Rita Coolidge and I don't know how many people know who Rita Coolidge is but she was a terrific performer and Rita had not been uh outperforming for years and for some reason she made a decision to come and perform here at The Wyrick so it was a very special evening for her and for us as well and at that time the theater sat about 600 people and I imagine about 500 people were in the theater and she literally

rocked the house I mean if you're if you've not been up on that Lyric Stage and you can get permission to do this after the this is over you ought to come up here and see what they see the audience is it's such a warm feeling you're right you're right in front of them so she did a unbelievable performance and we're all in tears and and the we we thought about two things actually one is the building was in such disrepair in the there was plaster on the ceiling and and the sound of the bass scared us that the plaster was going to come down and land on people's heads and when people ask me

was it stressful that the theater may not make it and my answer was yeah but it was more stressful thinking about what could happen to people on the inside of the theater um that night though when we saw her perform to me was a turning point before that it was it was a question as to whether or not we could make this work when when you were sitting in the audience watching her perform seeing how the audience reacted seeing how she reacted it just gave us that boost that we needed to to kind of affirm to ourselves that this could work the church was a great seller they um they cooperated with us uh in

just about everything we asked them to do what they weren't great at though is taking care of the building they had a they had a vision themselves to build a new building out in Palm City so when we acquired the lyric there was a lot of disrepair and and the roof leaked I mean leaked leaked to the point again that we thought the plaster was going to come down when Roy was talking about Andres dewani who is now an internationally recognized city planner this was in the I guess the beginning of his career and he made his presentation here at the lyric and that the theater was packed and it was the largest rainstorm I

had seen in years of course he had a projector up here and it was actually dripping on the projector I actually had to leave the theater because I was so nervous about something dropping down in somebody's head but this is what we went through uh in the initial stages when we were you know putting on these performances I'll never forget we had Blood Sweat and Tears come here and we were still very naive about what we needed to do and I got a call all of us were working full time and I got a call and saying that uh they needed somebody to load in the band I didn't even know what that meant and

they explained it to me and I called Bob my my friend and I said hey Bob we got to go load in Blood Sweat and Tears we both left our offices came over here and there was a semi truck out there full of equipment heavy equipment heavy heavy equipment right so the things you um you experience I guess that's the better Bittersweet we went through a very steep learning curve we had a a very strong business Community leader come out and basically tell the world through the press that we shouldn't have acquired the theater that it should have been in Palm City all those things that make it a little bit more difficult and the

other thing that we actually learned was that it was easier to raise money to acquire the theater than it was to pay off the debt and that's something we had to live with for years and it was a it was a tough lesson to learn the sweet part of the the story now when we see what the theater has turned into as a result of hundreds of hours and hundreds of people making it what it's meant to be is in my personal life I was not married at that at the time that we had we did this theater and I had got married later in life and had two daughters and the daughters my daughters

grew up to play classical music make a long story short they have performed on this stage probably more than a dozen times with orchestras with uh quartets and it was just I had a chance to have this discussion with a former executive director it was it was so interesting for me to experience being part of this in the beginning of uh of if it's conversion life and and see my daughters be able to play in the theater now they're off in college and and doing very well in their classical music but it was an it was an interesting Circle for me to see that and and I'm very proud to have been been part of

that there are so many people to thank uh that helped us get through this period of time that I can't even begin to do it I've often said that you get closest to the people that you go through tough times with and I think that all of us and the original board remained very close friends for a long time and we still remain friends today I just want to thank them and also thank the hundreds of people that have made this work thank you very much okay so here's a different strain on this I get to talk about the exciting part about what the heck we did here to take it from the you know

what he described before to more or less where it came in years later but let me start off also by thanking Roy who told me the biggest lie I've ever had in my life he came in and said I want to talk to you about The Lyric Theater and it won't take any of your time well tonight it's already taken an hour Roy but over the years it was it was a real Joy I mean we worked hard I mean we really worked hard and it puts a lot of stress on us but it was worth in the long run um we talked about what the theater I mean what the town looked like at

the time let me give you a quick overview of what the theater looked like uh itself outside looked like a war zone I mean there was no paint on it for years and it just was horrible um the lobby was divided into church classrooms with they had taken it and cut it up with doors on it so they could have classes out there there was um there was on that end there was a little room that was raised up and that's where we had our board meetings it was big enough for about four people and we put seven of us in there every every Monday when we sat there to try to decide who we're

going to hire for the next show we we used phantasma Productions out of West Palm with Bob Rossi does that name just make you start sweating um so so that's what we do that's the little room that was down there it was later the top was the walls were cut off and they use it for a stage so some of the photos you see behind us you'll see quartets or whatever sitting there on the stage that used to be our board meeting room but that was a Lobby and it and it was nothing fancy to look at trust me uh when you came in here all the seats were these blue seats and I'm sure

you're seeing those behind us too what the church had done was they basically used the downstairs and if a chair broke downstairs they went up and got Parts off of ones up there and bought them down here so they had piecemeal chairs together so it was fairly poorly it was hard to sit um underneath here there is a basement I don't know if you've ever been to the basement but there was one way in and one way out and that was just past those curtains there was a door that went down and it went down some pretty good steep uh stairs and those stairs were not exactly safety in mind there was no handrails on

them they were Steep and the light switch was down in the basement so it was risky business going down there and that's why we didn't use it for quite a while and the church literally left it jam with stuff we had a work day here one day and we've literally filled a huge dumpster right there and still had more to go but it was just one of those things that they used it for decades not only at the church but others who had used it just for for junk the back wall was about eight inches past this screen so imagine if you will see this with this curtain is think about how much room there's

between the two of them how are you going to put an orchestra of risers in that space how are you going to put the sets for for shows in that space you can so we had to leave the drapes open and and bring them you know out here like this roof access we Richard talked about the roof he said it was leaking onto it wasn't leaking it was pouring it I mean it was it was like a disaster this whole stage was wet and it was coming down but so that's one of the first things we had to handle and so we got you know the person in Palm City anyway we've got somebody to

come in and they sealed the roof for us but to get the roof was very risky because there's back up in here and over there there's ways you have to climb up and again not safety in mind um just so many parts of this thing were in poor shape the restrooms I don't know if you remember the restrooms but the restrooms are still the same doors but they're very small very very small on this side over here there is now a room where they have a restroom I'm talking about right on the street but that room was long and it went down and touched the back of the restrooms down there eventually what we did

was we brought it back this way made a shorter dressing room in there for the artist and then enlarge the restroom for the women um the stage was soft it was cushy we one of the first things we did after a couple performances because they were telling us that their equipment was bouncing on the stage we came in and put plywood down and you know a thick plywood and painted it but the church on zumba's photos if you notice where do you see the one where it's got the big butterfly have you noticed that one above it would be above us here they had lowered this down with a frame and a big butterfly on

it but you'll also notice that photo there's steps leading up here they had a very neat system where they can close it in like this or they had two big sections which they were probably I don't know eight or ten feet across or if not more and they'd pull them out and take them out to the wings and that would reveal the steps and then when they wanted it closed like this they would just put the things back on top well we just sealed those off so below us are still the stairs if you open this top up and pull off the front you could take it out and have stairs coming up and there's

what a three-person Orchestra pit below us here too somewhere I've never been in it and Kai has she said she climbed down there um so that's what it was looking like at the beginning it was pretty pathetic one of the things that we had whenever we were performing was lights and sound did not exist in the theater for every show we had to go and hire and rent from a company in Jupiter all the lights and sound for the show so not only do we have the shows loading in that day the lights and sound guys had to be here and load in the day before or that night and you know before the sound

checks and all like that so it was um there's a lot of a lot of moving parts that you don't necessarily have to have now I went off the board after three years so I was off from 91 to 94 and I came back on in 94 and the theater was just completing a project of about 96 100 000 and I really don't know what that was about but in 94 we started a three-phase renovation of the theater and most of these were fun all of this was funded by grants from the state and I'm gonna I'm gonna look now for a minute because I don't want to miss what we did so you can

follow through kind of how we progress through the construction phases the first phase was 1994 scale Constructors was the was the contractor there is a projection booth up there it was in pretty bad shape and we rebuilt that we bought some uh film equipment the projectors and things like that so we can use that uh new theatrical Reagan rigging some of the lights and things like that the the new curtain that goes across here they call it the grand drape we acquired that structural repairs were done and a lot of other theater improvements including some of the trust work was repaired that's what's holding that seal in above us and we also got a new

ceiling and I remember as if it was yesterday all those scaffoldings up here and those guys going up there and I don't like heights and these guys are making me nervous but they did it all put in a whole new plaster and they covered over some of the cracks that made Richard and me sweat for so many hours I mean literally won the concerts that had a very hard bass sound Richard and I stood at that back watching a crack we sat there and watched the whole concert like this because we were ready to sound the alarm that the current the ceiling's coming down but they but this project in 94 is when they they

cured that now that was all done by 462 300 in Grants from the state well they immediately applied for another Grant during the process for 358 000. and that came about the next year in 95. and in that project we actually hired somebody who would be an oversea project that we hired R.J heisenbotel Architects and he was a project project manager for that he said it's going to take about 90 days and so we ended up closing for the summer and of course one of the things that bothered us was we can't have any income coming in during that 90 days how are we going to do it so we looked around and tried to

figure out what we're going to do and and ended up going ahead and closing when we looked at Alternatives of split it up into two years and like that but but we went ahead and did it in one year closed for the two years I mean for the for the summer that work included all new electrical throughout the theater all new air conditioning units and interior lighting was all replaced and then heisen bottle at the end of the of the project gave a written report and he said this is what you need to do for the next phase seats remember we still had the blue seats a mansard roof over here because at the time

those major groups were which are now Barrel clay tiles that was um asphalt shingles in there that were really in bad shape and here's one concrete columns and beams that have deteriorated due to water intrusion just about every beam in this building he was looking at and all and the next thing was he recommended stage four well they applied for that Grant and phase three we got for we applied for new seating we applied for the mansard roof replacement and Ada upgrades for dressing rooms and bathrooms we received 317 900 from the state and we did exterior structural repairs on the mansard roof Ada code enhancement to the restrooms to the public restrooms not the

backstage and there was at that time there was only one backstage it was right over here and I don't know of anybody who ever really used it was kind of weird um we improved backstage restrooms and dressing areas and interior seat lighting in that phase Donald Armstrong was hired as the architect and he did some initial drawings and it provided for the renovation of the basement it's almost it's exactly what it is now so Donald Armstrong was architect of that enlargement of the restrooms this restroom over here was pushed back on over here into this area and this restroom was pushed back over here our original box office was over on this side there's an

office there now and and the restroom but that used to be a big a long room in there also similar to the one over here and we put up we had a window in there for people to come in and buy tickets right off the sidewalk and all of that was renovated in there which I haven't checked it out lately but the biggest problem with that of putting the theater manager's office there next to the restroom was twofold and they all relate to sound and smells you figure it out it didn't stay as the office manager's room office for long um I'm the grant did not include seats so we went into a at the

same time because the renovations going on we decided we need to get some new seats for the downstairs for the orchestra so he went into a 35 000 fundraising campaign and we were selling seat you know seat namings for 500 bucks each and we were selling quite a few of them but then a good Stroke of Luck came in Ruth Hope from what's the little town Ocean Breeze Ocean Breeze Park donated to us stock in First National Bank which was known at the time we sold the next day at the height of the market and we got the money to buy the seats and that's how the seats came in for downstairs so we got

rid of the blue but we still had the old blues upstairs um that theater I mean all of that renovation we closed for another summer and remember when we closed I let me explain something we were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate this theater it was not coming from our pockets or from contributions or from ticket sales it was coming from Grants the contributions of memberships of the theater and and ticket sales and all that it was a razor offend margin when you started to pay the bills there were many many times when it was like you get a call Bob whoever the on the other line we got a performance this week

and Florida Power just going to turn off our power we got to go raise 500 or a thousand dollars I mean that was not uncommon we were razor thin on operating expenses during this whole time even though we were making major Renovations it was it was a very stressful situation in in May or right around May of 1998 are property next door was leveled there was an old building there and uh I you know it was just a one-story building and the owner of it was Richard and Dana Kibby and I'd known them I represented them and when they purchased it and that kind of thing and I told him then if they ever want

to sell it the lyric is your buyer so when I heard that they had torn it down I I called them and they said what'd you tear down for and I said well we were going to build three stories up there we're going to put a cigar bar and this kind of stuff and we've got plans working on like that and I said wait a minute before you do that would you consider selling it to the lyric and within 24 hours I got it called back and said we'll sell it to you for what we've got into it two hundred thousand dollars so the next board meeting what's coming up and our secretary I mean

our Treasurer was sitting there Dave Skiles the great guy he was sitting there and he gave a 10 15-minute presentation on how razor thin our finances are and how we all as directors have to not should but have to go out and raise money immediately he finished his presentation and they went to no business new business I raised my hand uh we need to buy the lot next door for two hundred thousand dollars Dave looked at me closed this file and said Bob you haven't heard a damn thing I've said have you I went Dave I said the problem is this we can buy any property in the world and it won't make a difference

this uh to the success of lyric that 30 foot wide lot behind us is the only one that will ever matter and if something else is built there it'll be a hundred years before the lyric gets a chance to expand so with that in mind we started talking about it and started looking into it and we talked to an architect about you know the engineers about can we knock out the back wall because remember the back wall was only about 10 feet back here and we don't know if it's structural there are big beams going up and all like this and it was kind of frightening but they said yeah yeah we think you can

do it because they analyze it okay well now we still haven't gotten money we don't know how we're going to pay for this so that fall is when Lucy Corley our executive director resigned to go to the United Way and so we went on a job hunt for a new executive director and one of the things that we had our we had three major things for the executive director had to agree that they'd be willing to do and John lesser said he could do all three and the major one in there was he had to get the money to buy the lot next door so that was John's first calling I mean that was his

first job major major thing he was needed to do that was in John started March 30th of that year and November we had the property ball two hundred thousand dollars from a comp from from us from from an entity that didn't have enough money to pay the utilities on a regular basis but we the way we did that was two families each contributed to it Jack and Helen fine and had he made uh how do you mean how do you make Douglas they each contributed the funds to buy that and with that it was a big difference so that that's where we are after we were doing the same Renovations all these Renovations by grants

were being done without any expectation of owning the property next door so now we have okay now what are we going to do okay well as it is we've got to have another phased fundraising so at this time we've got John and and so we've got some people who know how to do these things so they put together a big brochure and they did a press release I mean we had press conference here we had a representative um I can't remember the represent from Port St Lucie anyway we had a bunch of people here in the press and all like that and started two two million five hundred thousand dollar fundraising campaign it was to

include enough to build the building and build a addition on the back excuse me and do some other things around here that needed to be done and set aside a million dollars for endowment so we could pay the bills on a regular basis and and have things under control for quite a while well we we got through a bunch of that phase one this was a two phase phase one um was was done by two different contractors the contract Service Enterprises and Masterpiece builders in that project is when we put the elevator in we took up I don't know if you know this but the seats up remember those old blue seats are up there

there's no legroom no legroom at all they were tight so we completely destroyed the upstairs took away all the risers and made them deeper so that you when you sit you have more leg room in front of you so we went from 600 seats to about 500 and the elevator up there where it comes in upstairs actually lost as much seats too there's a storage room up there but that was all built at that time so um uh we we got a lot of lights and sound at that time with that project and that phase one and then phase two that was in 1999 when that when that finished 2001 phase two kicked in and

that was the building of every knocking out the back wall and on some of the photos you can see the where the box was built in the back the concrete walls and all that kind of and that's kind of where we we go there and I'm gonna leave the rest I may have overstepped what you're going to talk on but I got I got on a roll I got nothing she got you got nothing but as a contractor so now that all the hard work was done the new guys in town got to enjoy the maintenance and the ripping out the chairs and the tarring the roof and um I think that the greatest achievement

that you guys had was was saving this theater has enabled people like myself who were newcomers to be a part of something part of the community and to meet people and to get together and have work days and uh I mean I'll tell you it was a godsend for someone like myself who was pretty much always active where I was and it wasn't hard to be active in New York but here I didn't know anybody and you know you know right away I've thrown into the pool and right away and know everybody and the work was was secondary you know but and everybody before us really made this happen and and I knew how important

the theater was to the community uh it's the centerpiece of the county and you know along along the way here in this almost 20 years that I've been here I don't know if that that's appreciated by as many people as it should be I mean obviously everybody who comes to the theater loves the theater but it's so unique to have a great little theater like this and then to have all of my predecessors who made it happen which is a miracle but then have someone like John lesser and Kai and the and the people that actually managed to keep acts coming in and they've had for a 500 seat theater and again we don't really

sell 500 seats mostly I mean there are a few you know we just don't but to have such a small uh venue uh and the amount and the acts that we got I mean of course A lot of them were on their way out but but they were or they were on their way up where they were on their way out I mean you know when you think about some of them people that were here when you think about one of the greatest ones I remember I I hope some of you was anybody here for the Mickey Rooney show and his greatest line was I mean they showed this whole film career five years in

a row he was the number one uh attraction in the world and we're all familiar with his movies and his stuff and and here here he is about 80 years old I think was when he was here he says after all of that success and how many marriages he had and how many all this money going away and he's but he said it in such a cute way and said here I am at The Lyric Theater but but the truth of the matter was we were lucky to even get him at that stage but we've had some wonderful times and we've and you know it takes a community takes a lot of people I think

the first Gala event I went to was when we had the Beach Boys here for the seven I think it was the 75th anniversary where we closed off the street and we had the tent in the by City Hall were you here for that right Officer yeah yeah I mean what a Kim you know what a community event I mean you know it's just and I've loved it I think it's been um continue along continuing along with the construction um after building the major Edition here which which took an awful lot of work an awful lot of bidding and then to come in here and find out that you know this is falling apart and

the engine engineer is starting to open up columns and finding out that they're just Hollow the steel is gone and which we found out was actually indicative of building that buildings that were built at in the 20s they were using the salt water from the river or the brackish water from the river and you're sealing in all the salt and it just gave a great start to the to the steel to but it took a lot of work to put this building back in a structural structurally to a sound building but and and the lobby change and you know so what I can say is it's it's it's had a good run and I think

the shape it's in now and and with the community interest now I think it's got a long history and thank you Roy for the start answer a couple questions any questions of the panel or any stories that anybody has their experiences and their time here at The Lyric Theater that you'd like to share or ask any first dates in the theater yeah they have silent movies yes interestingly enough on the history of The Lyric Theater when it was built by judge Hancock um judge Hancock's wife was a piano instructor as well as an organist and just for a point of reference of either how much he loved his wife or how much uh how important

an organ was to a silent movie in Vaudeville house at the time that the lyric was built in the 20s so it was built in 1926 and Takis did not come out until 1928. the cost of construction was reported to be a hundred thousand dollars in 1925 and 1926 and it is reported in news articles that the cost of the organ that was installed here at The Lyric Theater was twelve thousand dollars I understand um that at another point in time in talking with Bob and Richard last night that there was an attempt to try to put back in Oregon during the very early days of friends of the Year Bob it's true it's true

yes we we received an offer from a German who had a very substantially very large pipe organ in his house in Miami Beach right on Brickell Avenue uh Coconut Grove actually is what it was um and he invited us to take this organ and and he so we went down I mean there was five or six others going down and we saw this thing and it was massive and this this isn't a guy's house I mean um and it had pipes and he had a separate room that were air conditioned just for the pipe it's not like us and it was a little smaller Mills it was a substantial software and so how can you

turn down an offer a free organ that's been appraised at anywhere between eighteen hundred thousand dollars and you're a theater you came so we took it we never put it in we stored it for about a year year and a half until our architect for the next venue said uh sent us a letter saying about that organ it's not going to fit anywhere with what you need and we got to talk about it we said how many times do we have shows in here that require a big pipe working and it was like never that was before the request of all the ham and organs that we have to produce for a rock and roll

artists oh really a paperwork well anyway we ended up with his permission of the donor's permission to sell it to somebody and he actually approved everything about it so it found a good home and that was held here again yes you know interesting what Bob was saying about the stage when we first acquired the theater we were naive in terms of what you need to have a successful theater we just thought it was a theater it was going to be good right well the stage was so narrow because it wasn't designed for performances that's why the importance of the acquisition and making the stage you know deeper it was so narrow that you couldn't hardly

do anything with it and uh as a result of their hard effort to be acquired no end and made it a very functioning theater and to the point of running the theater today without that expansion of adding the backstage I'd like to point out something that hasn't been pointed out previously there was no bathroom for artists backstage there was no bathroom in what was reportedly used as the backstage in the basement and the early board members does anybody want to share any of their stories of what you had to do with artists that had to use a restroom well for many years we did ever yeah yeah for many years we we did have a

restaurant that kind of described before but it's right there in that corner but but Richard remembered it was kind of like it was sketchy but there was no water and you couldn't get a drink or anything back to everybody it was just I mean it was right where that curtain is that's all we had you couldn't so we got some people to loan us their lobbies and their their offices up here and they'd let us go in there and of course it was after hours so they had their air conditioner off of course know why not I think Leo Kottke coming for the concert but he's going to sit up there and get nice and

warm before the theater so let me put a show so that's what we do we take them around over here and go up the elevator and a little cross over and take them up to somebody's office up there and sit there and wait for him and until you've sat one-on-one with an artist whose head is as big as the mountain try to carry on chit chat with him because this is an experience you know McIntyre McIntyre Murphy will talk your head off and that's no problem but some of these people were just crazy they they were like why are you bothering me but uh anyway that's that's where we had that's where our conveniences were

for a couple of years between him Renovations here was in other off-site locations and that backstage expansion really opened a whole new world for presenting and programming not only for bringing in National or International acts but it really expanded the world of offering for our local community groups and I'd like to point out that the local community groups from Kiwanis to women's clubs they were really the groups that kept the lights on and kept the theater as we call in the business from going dark these community and Civic groups and high school choral organizations they were really the ones that were providing programming yet there was no house to space them in you know where

where did where do these choral groups live in the wing space while they're waiting for the performance to start so this second vision of seeing this building which then became a vacant lot and adding on to a backstage allowed for us to really be able to do what we do it every day which is kind of what we call a Roadhouse so we're a Roadhouse we're not a producing theater we're not like some of the theaters around here that build sets and props and costumes and higher actors and actresses and bands and musicians and put on you know you're a good man Charlie Brown or my fair lady or cats we're a Roadhouse so we're

looking for those artists that are kind of traveling throughout Florida and looking for venues to present themselves and by having this backstage it really allowed for us to have the you know New York Philharmonic Orchestra here on one day with 102 musicians and a piano and the very next day to have a Leo Kaki with just a guitar on the stage so that expansion really allowed for us to really differentiate our program and offer something for everybody in the community as well as being able to house our Florida arts and dance company our Dance Works companies all of these local production companies that really give our youth and our citizens an opportunity to explore performing

arts and give them a stage and an opportunity to present them so the backstage was tremendous as well as adding a wonderful restroom facility back there for everybody to be able to use and I'd like to point out if you've never gone for a tour of the lyric there is only one restroom backstage and there is only with one toilet and one hand sink and there is only one toilet and one hand sink which actually lives underneath the staircase which Services what we lovingly call the star dressing room any questions any other questions for the panel you're an easy Crowd Oh I see a hand from Sandy we're going to get called out from this

story what are you doing now the wall is knocked down on the exterior of the building uh going back to I think Mike's point of how Construction in the 1920s was not the construction that we know here today in the 2015 Renovations which was the last renovation which gave the lyric all of these beautiful jewels and accessories as we started to peel back the layers of the wall we uncovered as these previous groups of lovers of the lyric these structural headers and structural columns from the use of river sand and river water had begun to school recently we had a production here and thank God we had all of the theater Gods on our side

that night we had a theater production here we had we used to play Dance Company it was about 30 minutes before performance and we heard this absolutely ungodly crash bang boom why you see all of these what I'm calling braces these screw Jacks that are holding up the balconette on the exterior of the building and you see the plastic plastic that's covering up uh the exterior of the building is basically the same principle those falconets were installed and added onto The Lyric Theater in the 20s and 1925 and 1926 they have had some repair because we found different types of aggregate concrete that were used within the one balcony but in essence from water intrusion

river sand river water and non-florida building code techniques as we know them today that were utilized literally a portion of the balconette just detached from the building and Came Crashing Down on the sidewalk and the most fortunate part was that we did not have any body damage no property was damaged no cars were injured and we are currently working with a structural engineer the same structural engineer that was with us on site during the 2015 Capital campaign and Renovations as well as that contractor that are trying to determine if you look very carefully at those falconets and the reason why all of them now are secured is the falconets the most of course the heaviest

portion of these falconets were these gorgeous urns are located on the upper portion of the ballast rods that you see there is a pencil rod and rebar that's holding the top of those battle straws and then you'll see three support brackets underneath those falconets those three support balconets all have one solid piece of rebar that's going back into the building and none of them are tied into a structural header or a structural column so yes Sandy yes of course we didn't think about those things when it was built in the early 20s and so we've gone ahead and braced all of them while we are working with the structural engineer in an effort to find

ways to still honor the historic look and character of those falconets but using modern day techniques so we're looking at the styrofoam and plastered covered techniques for the balustrads as well as the urns and we are looking at taking a little bit of historic Liberty you've been talking to a lot of my historic preservationists about ways that we can tie back in the upper portion of the balcony back into a structural column which does wrong run along each side of those falconets so that's kind of why we look a little bit in disrepair you'll probably be hearing from us at The Lyric Theater about meeting you yet again to help us continue to preserve and

maintain The Lyric Theater that we know today any other questions this beautiful interior it's just mimicking the original design in the 1920s or it's just based on any previous design or is this kind of average the unfortunate part about the history of The Lyric Theater is nobody took the time to take a photo of the interior of the theater when it was first built we have really no interior photos of The Lyric Theater until you get to about the 70s time period so all of these arches are cues that are taken from the time period that the building was built which was in the 1920s which is the era of Art Nouveau and if you

look very carefully at the exterior of the building we have these beautiful uh recessed arches on the exterior where the fruit bowl lives inside and we decided to take kind of those visual cues to give a little Ambiance to the inside of the theater so it wasn't flat wall or textured wall but what that also worked for us so well was Believe It or Not these are recessed about two and a half to three inches which gives just enough breathing room for you to have a little bit of elbow space because if you had been here in The Lyric Theater before in the past when you were against the wall you were against the wall

so this allowed for us to kind of recess it back a little bit we used some paint to kind of give you a depth perception so it appeared as though it went back a little bit further but no this is all just visual cues that we had from the exterior of the building and trying to really kind of Honor without mimicking anything that we could not historically document any other questions I have one none of the four of us were here during the most recent renovation you were too much I know this last renovation was crazy because the whole intent of the renovation the whole Capital campaign was really kind of three phases first phase

pay off all debt second phase be able to dress her up a little bit so kind of the interior of the theater looked and matched kind of the calendar of the artists that were performing on the stage if you guys remember the lyric before this last set of Renovations um it was anything that everybody could do to save the building and get a little bit of money and make a repair and do something with the building so there was Wings coating walls that were in the lobby there was rough textured plaster and stucco on the interior which didn't really lend itself well to the Acoustics here in the facility so in the third phase of

that was to create an endowment or a pot of money for us to bring in international acts and really kind of preserves for the future the unfortunate part is what we thought was going to be a really simple renovation and just replacing seeds and putting up some drywall and adding some paint and Architectural elements as we started to peel back the layers of the walls we encountered that the structural headers and the structural columns within the lobby of the lyric were in extreme disrepair so much as if you were in Stuart in that time we kind of looked like New York City we have this massive scaffolding and we had a pass-through so people could

utilize the sidewalk well that was absolutely extremely needed and necessary because we literally had a structural engineer that was living on site I say because he was basically directing us column by column Header by header what we could chisel out and when I tell you chisel out normally when you remove a structural column or a header you need a jackhammer and a couple mid and it takes a while you could take just a hammer and start to knock at these structural columns and headers and it would just spool and fall apart in between your fingers we very quickly because we were only supposed to be closed for about three or four months during the summer

again following our previous packs of our friends at The Lyric Theater we were only going to close for the summer so we could be open for season and continue to operate and do what we do because without shows there's not a cash flow and we can't continue to keep the lights on and the doors open we very quickly discovered that this three-month process was going to take much longer so much to the point that we had already scheduled Clint Black to be our opening act in November to where we actually had to have the construction Crews working 24 7 around the clock to be able to get a stiffness have drywall seats in and carpeting

in to open time um we had to find quick drying concrete we had to have rebar installed it was a nightmare of a process and like the generations before us we all had many sleepless nights a lot of fears and a lot of prayers just simply to say can we please make sure that we open the theater save her bones and preserve her for another 90 years any other questions I think I saw a hand up back there I don't know if I'm that good how loud are you upstairs so uh Mary Jones or Alice Lockhart that's here in the building might be able or Sandy who's here in the building Alice our kind of

our our residents historians might be able to talk a little bit about this Penthouse the only thing that I know of it is that it was located on the roof of the lyric and that it was blown off during the 1928 hurricane do you know if that was used for residential or commercialized it was a part of us in the Roaring Twenties so before show after show we could be selected VIPs no obsessed so you could actually get the alcohol did you hear that answer yes sir I I find it kind of amazing that a small venue like this is able to attract the talent Like Blood Sweat and Tears which is such a big

fan and I know they they're not cheap how do you uh you pay them no but I've got the answer for that you lose money I guess I've got the answers I've got the answer for that when bands like that are brought down to Florida at a primary venue let's say Miami or Orlando or somewhere big it's always on a Friday or Saturday performance that's where they get their big buck the next morning they wake up and go what are we going to do we would hire them for Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays at a price of about a fourth of what they paid for that same show in Miami so if you look back on

the calendar when our early shows were performing they were during the week from a great majority now if you could get Donovan in or something like that like we did who you know one person on stage or Don McLean or somebody when you're bringing the bands to the Chuck mangionis and all like that they were twosies once he's theirs and that's why we were able to ride in on the coattails if somebody got already paid on the cost and this was just a place to kill the day and we and we use that very well we like I said every Monday night we would call fantasma production they would fax something to us because it's

before the time of fact is a big deal and then faxed up and we'd sit over there and we'd go through and who can we afford whatever we'd call them and say okay who can we afford what's the price it give us information and we'd pick and choose and the ones that fit the budget I mean that's the one to be hired but it was always on their second or third day in Florida and thinking that somebody else that goes back to what I was speaking to with the Roadhouse um and and in the business of presenting it's called block booking so there is some larger theater a larger venue that is located here in

the state that is called what we call in the business the anchor date so they're really paying the bulk of the costs because they really want to have this artist come in which we still have the practice of booking on Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays if you ever look at the lyric schedule which is actually not just about the cheapness but in our Stuart community think about all the activities that have been here on Saturdays and Sundays between golfing tennis Bridge fundraising events or fishing etc etc so it's actually been very beneficial but to Bob's Point that's still the practice typically you get the phone call of hey this artist is coming through you're basically going

to be what I love Elite joke to say is the gravy day so they're going to be stuck in Florida for about a week they're going to be at Miami on you know Saturday and then they're going to be playing at Tampa on the following Friday night they're off between Sunday and Thursday and instead of being off and making it a Florida vacation they'll kind of take a low ball offer to come and play but really at the end of the day in this business you know you can bring any act to any venue Across America as long as you pay them but if you notice we've always been very careful in following the model

of the original booking here at The Lyric Theater the last thing we ever want to do is out price anybody from this community from being able to afford an opportunity to come see a live performance here at the lyric so we're very careful with our selection very careful with the selections and and again this is where too much is owed to this first the first packs of The Lyric Theater that kind of figured out what is the model what is the routine and from there we've just worked at perfecting the operations of maintaining the theater on a daily basis any other questions Alex the Hancock family the ones who came up with the idea the

first theater here in Stuart it was over on Osceola is where it was located and we've had the picture up there in this small theater held about 200 250 people and as Stewart is growing because that was 1914 we have more people especially in the 1910s moving in and again because it was a nice theater that the judge did people were coming from all over not just from Stuart so they found eventually then by the late 1910s they needed a bigger theater and the judge thought let's put it over here by the train station because it would be seated right where this theater is today and would be right across from the train station and

all the other activities up and down the street so he built the second Lyric Theater again we've had the pictures up here uh and it stayed like that during the late 1910s into the 20s well again we have another big population boom during the 20s and we soon outgrow that second theater so it was a Hancock again getting mortgage money they don't feel such an expensive theater this time the third one and this one of course to last all these decades is quite great to that point I would just like to add on a historical component um the this Lyric Theater the third Lyric Theater in its current position you know we the panel here

talked about how there was 600 seats when they first came and saved it well we now have 500 seats however when judge Hancock built this third Lyric Theater there were nine 100 seats which is why it's kind of disappointing that there aren't any interior photos now I know as uh humans we've all grown this way we've all grown this way from those early days but our best guess is that the seating as most movie theaters in that time was probably Pew or bench seating so you could squish as many people in and on the historical note what was so interesting about Judge Hancock was again this Lyric Theater has kind of been a catalyst for

creating Visionaries and Risk Takers so in the 1920s the the city of Stuart really was just kind of coming into what we know as a city I mean we just recently got paved streets in the six teams and 1916 1970 right am I saying that correct and we just recently started getting like electricity and all these kind of interesting things which take us from being a mosquito and farm and chrysanthemum and pineapple territory into kind of starting the birth of a town with Bridges starting to connect us to alternate communities and areas and and starting to attract people when the lyric was built this Visionary John Hancock not only did he say you know what

we're going to have enough for 900 seats so we're gonna build this for 900 people because we're across from a train depot and they're going to come because they're going to want to see movies and they're going to want to be entertained and they're going to want to get out of the fields and they're going to want to socialize and meet and greet one another in the town when they come to get their goods but it was also a Visionary in the sense of when this building was built this was the largest building in Martin County events day and it was the first air-cooled building in Martin County so judge Hancock was really looking at

this kind of future technology and saying wow if I squish 900 people into a building that has no you know real ventilation has no doors has no windows how am I going to keep them comfortable while watching a movie entertaining and meeting and greeting so in all the historic records it talks about this uh new air system Nu air system which from what I can tell in looking at records just seems to be some giant exhausting things that were on the rooftop that just simply kind of sucked out air every about approximately 10 minutes and dumped and replenished fresh air but in those 20s if you think about it you were carried to town by

mosquitoes in those days you know there was no you know electricity in most of the common household families there was no fans there was no none of these luxuries that we know today until we had a hurricane uh so again this theater really this queen Lyrica as Roy referred to her when he wrote a letter um she has really been a Proving Ground of allowing for people to have dreams allowing them to have aspirations and allowing them to have a vision and I too am a strong believer of Royce philosophy that buildings places and spaces are like humans and if you sit quietly and long enough and you listen and you feel their vibrations they

do start to talk back to you and they do start to give you dreams and visions of what would be the future foreign person to be the caretaker of The Lyric Theater and what they call as a role of an executive director but I couldn't do what I do if I didn't have a board and I didn't have the hundreds of ushers and volunteers and bartenders and house managers and lyric staff really that enabled this building to kind of turn I'm I am really just one piece of a cog in a wheel but what was so important about this special invitation from Mary Jones about being the historic preservation month here at The Lyric Theater

and being able to connect Mary's history and family was nothing to do with me or where we are today in clear theater but was to really start to pay homage and tribute to the original groups of individuals 30 years ago that said hey we can be a not-for-profit organization we can say this historic building we can make it become a catalyst and an economic engine to make Stewart and Martin County and the Treasure Coast a viable and attractive place to live work and play So at the end of the day it's these characters and all of the characters that join their March and all of the characters that joined before us who we are here

today at The Lyric Theater that made it possible and they all really and those who passed before us deserve that Applause that homage and that honor thank you anything else to add thank you thank you for the presentation guy and by the way I was trying to decide if I wanted to say this but Kaya shared something with me last night that the theater is dead free and that is such a relief and congratulations going back I think Bob really drove that point home uh it was it's you the community um your tickets that you pay and come see shows do not cover the cost of operating a theater they barely cover the cost of

doing a show so it's the community by being patrons by volunteering their time by becoming members by making donations by telling their friends by bringing people here to The Lyric Theater it's really you the community that make it possible for us just to be the caretakers and it's you the community that really own the theater and we thank you thank you