The Holland Theatre will light up the 100 block of east Columbus Avenue in the upcoming years, like it did upon its founding in 1931, through a new project to fundraise, build and install a replica of the original marquee.
Representatives of the Logan County Landmark Preservation Inc. announced that the theater has received a fund- ing pledge of $200,000 toward the initiative from the Jeffries Family Foundation. The Jeffries pledge is a 1 to 2 match, which requires the theater to raise $400,000 locally over the next three years, beginning this month.
This is the second time the Holland has worked with the foundation, which played a major role
in the theater’s large-scale interior restoration completed in 2019.
“We are so grateful that the Jeffris Foundation is coming alongside the Holland Theatre in this new project,” Board Chair Kris Swisher said this week.
“They have been wonderful to work with, and they are providing our community with such a gift. We appreciate that they value our theater and its place in history.”
“The Holland’s interior restoration was one of the most successful projects we’ve ever funded, so we’re thrilled to be working with the theater again,” Foundation President Tom Jeffris said.
As a part of the grant requirements, plans have already been developed for the new marquee with Wagner Electric Sign Co. and architect Karen Beasley. The design would feature the vertical blade portion and the wrap- around marquee, where upcoming shows and activities can be listed, the board president related.
Swisher, who helped guide the restoration efforts that began in the late 1990s for the nation’s only Dutch atmospheric theater, said the project has been a goal of the theater board since the very beginning.
“We’re very excited for this opportunity,” she said. “It is a project that has been on our minds since 1999. It has been a dream of ours to see the marquee restored.
“It will truly light up the block and help our exterior stand out and make the theater easy to find. It’s an exciting project to begin, now that so much work has been completed on our interior renovations.”
Removed in the 1950s due to streetexpansion and traffic, the marquee was a striking feature of the Holland Theatre in its initial decades of operation.
Swisher said the fundraising campaign will be launched in the coming weeks, giving community members a chance to participate in the re-lighting of this local landmark.
The Jeffris Family Foundation, located in Janesville, Wis., was established in 1979 by Bruce and Eleanor Jeffris and their son, Tom. It seeks to pre- serve the cultural history and heritage of small Midwest towns through the preservation of regionally and nationally important historic buildings and decorative arts projects.
The foundation supports significant projects that strive for high preservation standards and show a strong degree of local support.
In 2016, the Jeffris Family Foundation , awarded a $430,000 Challenge Grant to The Holland Theatre. The Challenge Grants require receiving organizations to match the grant funds twice, which brought about the formation of a local Fundraising Committee. The local fundraising requirement of $860,000 was met in November 2018.
Buoyed by this community support and govern- ment and private grants, the theater completed a multi- million-dollar restoration in 2019, with a wide array of improvements made to the facility to beautify it and restore it to its 1931 glory. The restoration project involved a wide array of activities, from decorative finish contractors bringing to life the Dutch cityscape inside the auditorium, to new seating, a restored lobby and concessions area, enhanced sound and light- ing, renovated green room space for visiting artists, along with other modern amenities.