Editorial: Phase One completed, the future looks bright

Wow! What a party we had last Saturday night on Kearney Street!

Our community took a well-deserved rest on the long road to Bring Back the Mulkey and celebrated the official lighting of the theatre with lots of fanfare and good, old-fashioned fun.

Getting an accurate headcount for the evening was nearly impossible with people milling about up and down Kearney Street in front of the Mulkey, wandering into the car show on the Herring Bank parking lot, slipping off to First Street for the kids’ bounce houses, and going in and out of the theatre itself. A sheriff’s deputy estimated that as many as 1,000 people may have attended over the course of the four-hour event. Your humble editor counted nearly 600 at one time by “eyeballing it.”

As this column has said many times in the past, there is not much that Clarendon and Donley County cannot do if its people work together, and the Mulkey Theatre project is an example of that. As with any endeavor, there are a few naysayers out there, but overall the Mulkey has enjoyed broad support from folks of all ages, all walks of life, and even folks who might otherwise have some opposing political views. But by and large, we can all see that a revived Mulkey Theatre can be nothing but good for Clarendon.

Since work began on front of the theatre, there has been renewed interest in downtown. New shops have opened up in previously vacant buildings, and next month another new business will open in the building adjoining the Mulkey to the north – a building that has been nothing but storage for about four decades.

Is the Mulkey project responsible for this uptick? Probably not on its own, but I think it is part of a mix of things that includes the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation’s Façade Grant Program, which has pumped about $17,000 into storefronts on Kearney Street in the form of matching grants ranging from just over $80 up to $2,000.

The future is bright and getting brighter. As we go to press, the CEDC and city officials are considering an application for a downtown revitalization grant that, if successful, would help pay for new street lights and address accessibility issues on Kearney Street.

The CEDC believes the Mulkey can be a catalyst for all kinds of improvements downtown, and that project is by no means close to being finished. The CEDC purchased the theatre in 2008, and it has taken time to get to this point. Funding and completing Phase Two – Interior Renovations will also take a lot of time, energy, and, of course, money; but when it’s done, the Mulkey will again be a first rate movie theatre and serve as an even more functional Visitor Center. Phase Three then will be to extend the small stage in the Mulkey and add more audio and lighting capabilities in order to host live performances like the Ritz does in Wellington.

In December, my wife, Ashlee, and I attended an Oak Ridge Boys concert at the Ritz, and I think our imaginations – as well as those of dozens of people in attendance from Clarendon – were on fire with the possibilities of the Mulkey one day hosting that kind of entertainment.

The Mulkey project has been fortunate to have good supporters thus far from people who have opened their wallets to assist the project to a host of volunteers who have done whatever was asked of them. It has had support from preservationists across the state and from local politicians at home. Clarendon and its theatre owes a debt of gratitude to everyone involved in this project, and I want to especially thank my colleagues on the CEDC Board – Bill Stavenhagen, Terri Floyd, Sherol Johnston, Steve Hall, Abby Patten, and Ann Huey as well as former board members Bob Watson, Terry Noble, and Will Thompson – all of whom have put in a lot of thought and love into this project. And we are also fortunate to have our Executive Director, Chandra Eggemeyer, who has focused so much time and talent on this project, as well her husband, Jared, who is always there to lend a hand.

Going forward, the Mulkey needs all of us to stand behind it, promote it, and bolster it. To succeed in Phases Two and Three, the project will need grants and donations of sizeable amounts. But it also needs the support of the community.

We have two generations who have never seen a movie at the Mulkey. Let’s change that. Let’s get behind this project and take the next steps. We owe it to ourselves to save our heritage and to our children and grandchildren to preserve this piece of the past and give them the gift of culture, entertainment, and a love of the visual and performing arts.

Keep the lights shining, and let’s get busy and make the inside just as glorious as the outside. Let’s work together to “Bring Back the Mulkey!”