By Joseph M. Morgan

joseph@southerntorch.com

COLLINSVILLE, Ala.— Thanks to the hard work of the Collinsville Historical Association (CHA) less than one week from today, the Cricket Theatre in Collinsville will open its doors to the public for the first time in decades. On Thursday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. the Cricket will host the stage performance of The Integration of Tuskegee High School, a theater production by Auburn University’s Mosaic Theatre Company.

The play chronicles the integration era of the civil rights movement through the eyes of the students who were part of the Tuskegee integration. Thanks to a competitive Outreach Scholarship Grant from the Office of Faculty Outreach at Auburn University and the Collinsville Public Library, attendance to the performance will be free of charge.

But the production next week that marks the Cricket’s re-opening is much more than a milestone to the people of Collinsville. To many it marks the beginning of the resurrection of a building that has served as a symbol of the city for almost 70 years.

Prior to the Cricket Theatre’s grand opening in 1946, local headlines proclaimed “New Cricket Is Most Beautiful Structure in North Alabama.” The accompanying article said “Collinsville theatre goers can be justly proud of a magnificent structure, one of the strongest and best equipped theatres in the state.

“The front of the new Cricket sign will tower 40 feet in the air with six different colors of lighting and more than 300 feet of tubing; this sign and the neon lights can be seen for more than two miles. The theatre’s name will be spelled out in dazzling neon lights, supported above the marquee by a giant V-type steel support, which will give off illumination for the entire town. With a seating capacity of 800, the building is comprised of 175,000 bricks, equivalent of 15 train car loads; five cars of sand; 25,000 concreate (sp) blocks; 100,000 lbs. of structure steel and better than 27,000 man hours of labor.”

The Cricket Theatre’s architectural and historical significance to the town of Collinsville became absolute in 1951 when the DeKalb County Commission voted to give as a gift to the city of Collinsville the large clock that had adorned the roof of the DeKalb County Courthouse since 1925. As the tallest building in the city, located directly in the middle of Main Street, the roof of the Cricket Theatre was far and away the best location to showcase the city’s new crowning jewel. The merger of the ornate antique clock and the beautiful new theatre in 1950 quickly created a symbol that represented to many the best of that which Collinsville had to offer. It became more than just a symbol when the city officially adopted the image of the town clock perched proudly atop the Cricket Theatre as the town seal. The Cricket Theatre would thrive for the next 20 years as one of the most popular entertainment venues in DeKalb County and the symbol of the clock atop the theatre became synonymous with the city of Collinsville itself. But when popularity of the theatre began to decline around 1960, the building also began a slow decline. In a few short years the theatre would close its doors and become abandoned almost altogether. As the theatre sat empty, its maintenance became less and less frequent. By the 1990’s the building had been completely neglected. The lack of maintencane and repairs eventually resulted in leaks and progressively worse structural damage.

By 2004, the leaks in the roof were so bad the entire structure was in danger of collapse. Of obvious concern to all was the stability of the clock that had actually begun to lean as the building deteriorated beneath it.  Because the city did not own the theatre building itself, but only the clock, they were unable to facilitate the building’s repair. Later that year city leaders had no choice but to make the decision to remove the town clock by crane from the increasingly unstable theatre roof. With the clock now removed the Cricket sat in almost complete neglect for another five years.

After months of attempted and failed negotiations to purchase the theatre at a reasonable price with no luck, CHA made the decision in 2009 to pay the private owner the $50,000 asking price for the nearly destroyed historic building with the bold vision of restoring the nearly completely dilapidated city icon to its former glory.

CHA Treasurer Martha Barksdale said the importance of saving the building and now working to restore it is far greater than the financial cost that will be required to make it happen.

“I’m a preservationist,” Barksdale said. “This building was the central focal point of our  town at one time. It even became a part of the image that represented the entire town of Collinsville.”

Restoration work began in 2010 with a new roof. The association has been working diligently for the past five years to slowly bring the Cricket back to its former glory. It is important to note that while the stage production next week marks the first event of this significance held in the theatre in decades, it does not mark the official re-opening of the Cricket Theatre. Barksdale said there has yet to be a date set for the theatre’s official grand re-opening because the restoration timeline depends greatly on how long it takes to raise the money to continue the work.

“Donations are a big part of it,” Barksdale said. “The association has been awarded generous grants, donations, and fundraisers and we try to keep something going all the time. There’s wonderful community spirit here and there’s wonderful support. The first public event held since the renovations was the quilt walk which was last month. The next fundraiser coming up for the town of Collinsville and for Cricket Theatre will be the Turkey Trot which will be held Nov. 14 where they will be raising money to help put in more lights and a marquee. We will keep working for as long as it takes to finish the project.”