GILROY
– Just days from its 81st birthday, one of Gilroy’s once most
prominent and historically venerable structures may get one of the
best gifts of all – new life.
GILROY – Just days from its 81st birthday, one of Gilroy’s once most prominent and historically venerable structures may get one of the best gifts of all – new life.
The Strand Theatre may be born again.
A retired Lutheran pastor who lives in Gilroy and a Bay Area-wide group of his friends, acquaintances and relatives are in the process of taking over the old theater-turned-department store at the southern end of the city’s downtown core.
Their plan: to revive and transform the old building at Monterey and Lewis streets into a multi-purpose venue for special events, arts and entertainment.
“My understanding is (some) in the community have looked at this as an arts center, and that’s basically what we’re looking at at this point,” said Earnest Brooks, a Burchell Road resident who’s helping to spearhead the transformation and revival, while overseeing a touch-up painting of the cavernous building’s interior walls Tuesday afternoon.
So far, the idea does not seem to be a pie-in-the-sky concept due to come to fruition in a few years’ time. Although a formal grand opening will come later in January, Brooks said organizers are confident they can stage their first event – a dance with hors d’oeuvres featuring Santa Cruz’s all-purpose band The Casuals – next Thursday, assuming they pass fire marshal inspection.
Other weekend entertainment would follow, and then the facility would be open for holiday-season parties and special events.
The first event will be 81 years and two days from when it first opened, Brooks said.
“It’s sort of a birthday,” he said.
Brooks, 64, said he came upon the building and its two ballrooms two months ago when he and Tina Lehr, a San Jose wedding coordinator he knows, were looking for a venue to host wedding receptions. Brooks had toured prospective facilities in San Jose, Morgan Hill and San Juan Bautista, and even looked at Gilroy’s Old City Hall, where the floor space didn’t seem to suit such events.
But when Bill Lindsteadt, Gilroy’s economic development coordinator, told him of the recently vacated Strand, they were hooked – and their vision began expanding.
“It’s a very impressive facility, and things just started falling into place, not only for wedding receptions but for an arts and entertainment venue,” he said. “It looked good.”
According to old Dispatch articles, the Strand’s doors first opened Dec. 3, 1921, two years after a group of local Masons, the Keith Lodge 187, decided it should be built. William Radke, a local contractor, built the structure for more than $100,000. Moviegoers saw Camille and Buster Keaton’s “The Haunted House” on opening night; admission ranged from 9 to 36 cents.
The humorist Will Rogers is said to be the most famous person to ply his trade on the building’s stage.
Today, the roughly 12,000-square-foot downstairs has been significantly changed to suit the old Ford’s Department Store that eventually replaced the theater. That area is somewhat Spartan in its decoration.
However, signs and outlines of its former life as a theater are still present. A raised stage still stands at the front of the cavernous large main room, which features high ceilings and hanging 1980s-style track lighting. Dressing rooms lie in the wings, and stairs lead down to a large space underneath the stage that was used for a dressing and staging area.
Mirrors and plastic paneling line a lower, smaller front room facing Monterey Street separated by a doorway where the foyer and marquis once were.
The upstairs ballroom seems to be in a more original state, with hardwood floors and mustard-yellow walls contrasting with columns and moldings painted green. A third, smaller room overlooking Monterey suggests potential use as a board or meeting room with a large centerpiece table.
Brooks has a head full of ideas for how to fill the spaces. Besides wedding receptions, civic clubs could hold luncheon meetings and banquets, he said. Merchants could stage shows and display their wares.
Meanwhile, Brooks hopes to draw artists of various kinds to stage musical performances, dramas, vaudeville and arts shows. Acts could range from demonstrations by local guitarists, he said, to eventually include “entertainers who are established in the field but enjoy playing a smaller house than Pacific Bell Park.” The target market would be regional, including San Jose, Hollister, Monterey and Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Los Banos, with Gilroy serving as a hub.
Brooks’ daughter, Christine Brooks, who studied theater and film at New York University, would handle the booking and publicity.
“We can rely a little on her,” he said.
Although it won’t be a restaurant proper, the space could also host dinner theater or themed brunches and parties, Brooks said. A kitchen for catering is included in future plans.
“We hope to have a place where people could come and have dinner, dance and enjoy an evening out and the entertainment we’d have,” Brooks said.
The possibilities are nearly endless, he said.
“I feel given the facility, we’re limited only by our imagination and the response of the overall community,” he said.
According to Brooks, not much needs to happen to get things underway. Soon, crews will finish painting the downstairs and then sand and clean the expansive tile floors. An order of tables and chairs should arrive this week. After that, the group will begin the redecorating.
Organizers hope to make the decorations to be period-specific to the days before the theater became the Ford’s Department Store. Although residents are sure not to see a return to the old sloping amphitheatre-type seating, eventually over time Brooks said the group hopes to restore many of the old theater’s historic touches – including possibly the old-style marquis and facade.
Included in the restoration is the name: The facility will be called “Gilroy’s Historic Strand Theatre.”
“We hope people will come and be part of the activities, have fun and enjoy themselves in what we consider to be a really fine environment …” Brooks said. “I hope Gilroy will see it as a real asset.”
So far, those that know about the facility seem to be. Optimistic downtown business leaders and observers said the venue would fill an entertainment gap for the city and attract people downtown in the process.
“I’m overjoyed,” said David Peoples, president of the city’s downtown association and owner of the Nimble Thimble store, in an interview Wednesday. “It’s the kind of thing we need downtown, the kind of thing that will help downtown and the kind of people that want to help downtown.”
