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Article published Sep 26, 2008 If you renovate it, they will come: Claiborne's Capitol dreams become reality
By Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times Staff
There's a resurrection taking place in downtown Maryville tonight.
The old Capitol Theatre, a fixture along Broadway Avenue since 1934, will open its doors for performances once again. The ghosts that walk its renovated halls are no doubt smiling in delight at the transformation that's taken place there since artist Heath Claiborne acquired the building in 2002.
No doubt, those smiles will be mirrored on the faces of patrons -- along with gasps of amazement and exclamations of awe -- who walk through the doors and see the theater in all of its opulence and grandeur. It's a project that's consumed Claiborne for the past six years, so much so that the painter hasn't put brush to canvas in almost 12 months, and at last, it's time for the venue's grand unveiling.
"A lot of people have been in the lobby and to the coffee shop, and we've shown folks the theater part of it when they've asked to see it, but not many people have seen what we've done -- it's kind of like introducing the bride for the first time," Claiborne told The Daily Times this week. "The most important thing is that even though it's been designed with all of this new technology -- making it a new start and a new generation for the theater -- we've done everything we can to preserve the original integrity and history of the building.
"One of the things that makes it so special are the memories that drive it. The new technology just allows us to do more than just show a movie. We can do stage performances, movies, concerts and dancing. But we've preserved the sense of history that goes along with it."
Claiborne, who grew up in Chattanooga and graduated high school in Jefferson County, first came across The Capitol Theatre in 2002. The building itself has a much longer history -- the W.A. Dunlap Building, which houses the Capitol, was built in 1923. It was a furniture store and a department store before Crescent Amusement Company bought the building in 1934 and opened the Capitol.
The theater's large marquee lit up Broadway from then through the 1950s, a time when downtown Maryville was the center of life in Blount County. Gradually, however, it lost ground to more modern, multi-screen theaters and changed hands as well as businesses over the years. It housed a wedding shop, a record store and a disco before shuttering in the 1970s.
In 2002, Claiborne happened across it while accompanying his uncle on an errand in downtown Maryville.
"I was walking down the Maryville sidewalk and saw the building all boarded up, and I called the number on the sign," Claiborne said. "The owner came down, we talked and he walked me through the theater."
It couldn't technically be described as love at first sight -- after all, the old building was a mess, Claiborne said. When the owner made him an offer, he declined at first, but a few weeks later, the realtor called back, and Claiborne purchased the building for $165,000.
At the time, he was working as a professional artist after switching majors from pre-med at Wheaton College in Illinois to architecture at the University of Tennessee to art at Carson-Newman. He'd traveled around the nation, exhibiting his works at various galleries, and in the Capitol, he thought he'd found the ideal location for both a studio and a gallery closer to home.
From the beginning, however, the building's potential whispered to him.
"I never thought I would reopen it as a theater, because it was a mess, but it was a vast space for an artist -- and the potential was there all along," he said. "It still had the sloped floor and the stage, and the old curtains were still up. Anybody who walked in felt this urge to do something with it."
At first, Claiborne slowly began renovating it for gallery space. He moved a television and a couch onto the stage and set up his art studio, staying there during the week and commuting back home to Jefferson City on the weekends. Six months later, he and his wife moved to Blount County, and he slowly began thinking about grander designs for the building. The art gallery opened first, followed by Capitol Coffee. Roughly three years ago, he made a move to do something with the building's interior.
"People would come in every day to the gallery and say things like, 'This is where I went when I was a kid,' or, 'This is where I met my girlfriend,'" Claiborne said. "I didn't have an actual theater, but I did have this place where people could walk in and just be in this cavern of memories. Eventually, I just got tired of talking about it and decided to do something. I knew I didn't have a chance of opening it up as a movie house again, so we came up with an idea that would make it more flexible."
Claiborne's plan called for a complete overhaul of the building, restructuring it as a private events facility that could be rented out for various functions and opened to the public for concerts, movies, plays and more. With the idea in place, he turned his attention to financing, and after crunching some numbers, he went out into the community and sought commitments from individuals and organizations to rent the building after its renovation.
What he found surprised him.
"I knew that, if I could get people interested in wanting to use this place before it was even renovated, I would be able to succeed with it after it was done," he said. "Once I had 10 bookings, I decided to get financing and go ahead with rebuilding it."
Two years ago, the marquee went up out front of the building -- calling attention to something big that was happening in downtown Maryville. At 44 feet wide and extending 8 feet over the sidewalk, the marquee is larger than the one belonging to The Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville. And thanks to LED lighting and environmentally friendly technology, Claiborne keeps the marquee lit up 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- at a cost of about $20 a month.
The technology he's installed will allow for a state-of-the-art entertainment experience. It's also been expensive, but not as much as it would have been three years ago -- technological advancements have cheapened considerably in recent years. That's not to say that the renovations cost a pittance; the Claibornes have put more money into the remodel than it cost to purchase the building in the first place. He declines to go into specifics, but the lighting rig within the theater proper costs around $100,000.
Its opulence, however, is something to behold. The stage, with a 30-foot retractable movie screen, sits at the back of the auditorium, which is centered around three separate tiers. Overhead, the lighting rig throws strobes, multi-colored spotlights and more in a variety of directions and angles. The building can seat as many as 250 guests, with floor space for dancing.
Tonight, the Knoxville Swing Dance Association will offer free dance lessons at 9 p.m., and local big band The Streamliners will perform at 9:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for the performance, but admission is $8 for students or members of the association. (There's also a $5 surcharge for glassware and ice, and tonight's event is BYOB -- alcohol can't be served because state laws prevent businesses that hold a liquor license from bringing in outside food or drink caterers, which defeats the purpose of the Capitol's core business plan of use as a special events facility, Claiborne said.)
The Streamliners will be regular performers at the Capitol, returning for the Foothills Fall Festival and for future Last Friday Art Walk events. To facilitate using the Capitol for both public and private events, Claiborne has hired Debbie Wilbourn of Maryville to serve as events director. Future public events include a stage production of "The Odd Couple" by the Foothills Community Players, and after the first of the year, Claiborne hopes to offer screenings of classic movies on Thursday nights and Sunday afternoon. Additional concerts are still in the planning stages.
For now, Claiborne wants to show off the project that's taken up so much of his time over the past several years -- and to get back to painting.
"In 2002, the old owners were very interested in getting somebody in with the artistic vision to turn it back into something that had to do with the arts," he said. "I think we've done that, and my plans are to dive right back into painting hardcore after this is over this. I haven't painted a picture in an entire year because I've been working continuously on the theater. I've been keeping myself going by making this theater my artwork.
"People keep asking me, 'Are you excited?' Honestly, I'm more relieved than anything to be getting to the end of it. I envisioned what this would look like four years ago, so I'm glad we're finally here. But it's affirming to see that I did it right when I come in and see of the 'wow' factors on people's faces. That's what I was trying to accomplish."