Stadium Theatre ready for facelift

Proposals being taken for repairs to brick exterior

WOONSOCKET — The Stadium Theatre is in for a facelift – or a least a nip and tuck. The city issued a request for proposals for brick repairs and repointing to the full exterior of the Monument Square landmark, including the facade, the sides and back. The city doesn't own the performing arts center, but it approved the Stadium Theatre Foundation's application for a grant for facade improvements from Community Development Block Grants funds. About $162,295 of the city's $1.24 million CDGB allotment has been set aside for commercial facade improvements, but it's unclear how much of that might be dedicated for work at the Stadium. The bid deadline is 2 p.m. on Aug. 30, but representatives of any company that's considering vying for the job must appear for a mandatory pre-bid conference in the back lot of the Stadium Theatre at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 16, according to documents issued by the city. The bid specifications, which are available online and in the Planning Department at City Hall, say the work includes brick repairs, repointing and replacement of downspouts. Repointing is a tedious process of restoring the deteriorating mortar seams that bind one layer of brick to another. An engine of the city's nightlife economy, the Stadium will remain open for business during the work. The bid specifications say the successful bidder must present a plan to “constantly maintain access and egress to and from (the) existing building in a manner...so as not to interfere with the building use and construction traffic patterns.” The successful bidder must also erect temporary barriers from nylon on polyethylene to cordon off work areas and take “extreme care” to protect the existing building and eliminate sound and dust from work areas during construction, according to the bid documents.

All necessary “scaffolding, platforms, ladders, ramps, chutes, temporary stairs” and other equipment to do the job must be provided by the bidder and work-generated debris must be removed on a daily basis. Built in 1926 by the industrialist Arthur Darman, the 1,100-seat theater once featured world-famous performers at the zenith of their careers, including Will Rogers, Charlie Chaplin and Al Jolson. But a little more than 50 years after Darman built the five-story venue and the adjacent Stadium Office Building, the theater was facing mounting competition from the multiplex moviehouses. While the building had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976, a date with the wrecker's ball seemed inevitable for the Stadium – until the late Mayor Francis Lanctot stepped in to rally support for saving the building. In 1991, while still in office, Lanctot formed Save Our Stadium, a grassroots organization that began raising money to restore the site, now considered one of the best-surviving examples of vaudeville-era theater architecture in the region.