Heights Renovation/Restoration (1998-2005):
Exterior | Lobby | Auditorium | Projection Booth
Historic Photos | The Heights - DQ Family | Dairy Queen Remodel
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The auditorium as it looked when we purchased the Heights in 1998. |
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2005. The auditorium as it is today. The chandeliers have been added and the columns on the sides of the proscenium have been reconstructed, otherwise most of the detail and ornamentation was still there, just having been painted over or covered up through numerous re models over the years. The “new” grand drape was made up from some interesting sources though. The red velvet on the sides and at the top came out of the old Columbia Heights High School (erected in 1926, demolished in 2004) The lighter red central part of the curtain came out of the old Knoll wood Theatre when it closed, and the beautiful art deco stencil pattern at the bottom is from the 1929 grand drape of the Grand Forks Orpheum. |
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1999. Not long after purchasing the theatre we discovered that the arches and grill work for the Organ chambers were still there, just having been covered up in a 1936 remodel. |
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Having been covered up for over 60 years, extensive repair work was needed to restore the arches and other decorative plasterwork around the chamber openings. Here volunteer Mark Mason is doing some much needed plaster work. |
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2000. Another discovery was that the original orchestra pit was still there, having been covered up with 3” of concrete over a false floor. Notice that by this time the foot lights had been resorted and a big gold drape, which had been found in the basement of the Theatre, was now up. |
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Here volunteer Eric Mork is doing some of the extensive detail painting that was required in restoring the Heights. The wall mounted light fixture right underneath Eric came out of the Strand Theatre in East Moline, Illinois. We salvaged these lights and an early Western Electric sound system out of this 1918 theatre in 1996. By this time the Strand had become a porno peep house in the lobby with the Auditorium being completely abandoned. I’m happy that we were able to find a deserving home for these great old fixtures. |
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1999. Besides all of the cosmetic work that was required to bring the Heights back to life, the big task of upgrading it technically needed to be addressed also. Here we see Heights Technical wizard TJ Hopland carrying the new screen that would replace the old one, which had had many years of use…usually as a target for flying candy. |
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Hanging the new screen. |
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2004. One of the final major restoration projects that needed to be done was putting back the ornamental columns that originally graced the proscenium opening on the stage. In 1936 the Heights went through a major re model to make the theatre more stream lined and “up to date”. It was at this time that the original columns were torn out and a flat surface replaced them. It was also at this time that the original organ was torn out, the orchestra pit was filled in and the Organ chambers were covered over. |
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Luckily we had some good guides in reconstructing the columns. A group photo that had been taken on the Heights stage in 1928 existed, so we were able to have an actual visual reference of how they looked. We also have the original blueprints for the Heights and they had a detailed schedule on the size and dimensions of the original columns. |
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The result is almost identical to the original columns. |
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One of the outstanding features of the Auditorium are the four hanging chandeliers. While the Heights originally had hanging lights in the auditorium, these chandeliers are not original to this theatre. We got them from our good friend Wade Williams in Kansas City, MO, who has been in the Theatre salvage business since the 1950’s and owns and operates a small chain of classic art cinemas in Kansas City. These Chandeliers date to around 1914 and came out of the lobby of a large movie palace in Texas, right before it was razed in the 1950’s. They still needed extensive restoration though having long been stripped of their crystal and other ornamentations. They were completely re wired, re painted and all of the lead crystal that is currently on them came over from Egypt courtesy of Heights theatre friend Terry Zickrick. |
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