City gets $1.9 million grant for Merced Theatre

8-31-2007 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE       (City of Merced Release #97 - Mike Conway)

MERCED – The Merced Theatre restoration project will take a giant leap forward with a $1,935,000 grant from the California Cultural and Historic Endowment.

The City of Merced and the Merced Theatre Foundation are working on Phase 3, which will restore the historic theater to its 1931 glory. For many years the theater was the entertainment and cultural center of Merced but in later years it became a four-plex with much of the interior detail covered over.

“This is a momentous occasion for the theater restoration project,” said Merced Mayor Ellie Wooten. “We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani and the Merced Theatre Foundation for their help, and to the state Endowment for funding this project.”

The complete restoration of the Merced Theatre in Phase 3 is estimated to cost $6 million. Along with the grant, a variety of public and private financing would be used to finish the project.

The theater restoration is the only project in Merced County funded by the Endowment in its five-year history. There were 184 applications submitted for this round of funding and 63 projects were recommended for funding.

The endowment is funded by Proposition 40, the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks and Coastal Protection Act of 2002. The Endowment, operated under the State Librarians Office, distributed $122 million.

The Merced Theatre was designed by the Reid Brothers, San Francisco architects who designed the Hotel del Coronado in Southern California and the Fairmont Hotel. The Merced Theatre is the only one of their theater projects in the Central Valley.

The interior of the theater had a Spanish castle courtyard theme, with balconies overlooking the floor. The $380,000 theater – the first building in the county with air-conditioning – also boasted a cloud machine.

The theater opened Oct. 31, 1931 with the world premiere of “Local Boy Makes Good,” starring Joe E. Brown. The Merced Theatre could seat 1,645 people, almost a quarter of the City’s population at the time.

The first two phases of the restoration work completely renovated the front of the building and the tower. The building now has five ground-level retail spaces and 10 apartments on the second story. The building was purchased by the Merced Redevelopment Agency in 2002 for $780,000. The RDA restored Phase 1 -- the apartment and retail section -- and has contracted with the Foundation for the restoration and operation of the theater.