A historical theater in Cowlitz County that would not be standing if it weren’t for the eruption of Mount St. Helens celebrated its centennial over the weekend.
The historic Columbia Theatre in Longview, Wash. in an undated provided image.
Courtesy of Columbia Theatre Association for the Performing Arts via KNXK
The Columbia Theatre in Longview, Washington, opened its doors on April 4, 1925. At that time, the venue was considered a showcase for modern engineering and craftsmanship, and a prominent example of the Classical Revival style.
According to the National Register of Historic Places, the building shows city planners placed an emphasis on cultural life by prioritizing the space for entertainment. The theater showcased silent movies accompanied by an organ and vaudeville performances on the weekends, which were variety-like shows popular in the early 20th century.
But, Kelly Ragsdale, the theater’s current director, said the now-performing arts space has always struggled in some capacity. Vaudeville and silent movies eventually went out of favor, so the theater started showing newly released movies and organized community events.
“It was originally a 1,200-seat theater, so they had big dreams when they built it,” Ragsdale said. “But then when new multiplexes started to come out during that time – that sealed the Columbia Theatre space to close. That was going to be the end of the theater at that time.”
In May 1980, the theater was set to be demolished and replaced by a multiplex, or a movie theater with multiple screens.
“The plan was that Monday, the 19th, is when final demolition was going to occur,” Ragsdale said.
She said construction equipment arrived in the theater’s parking lot the week before the building was set to be razed. Then, on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted sending rock and debris down river valleys from the volcano. Ash flew 15 miles into the sky, and wind swept that across 22,000 square miles.
“And they had to pull all the equipment for recovery efforts,” Ragsdale said. “And it was really Virginia Rubin, who created the task force. She was determined to save the theater.”
Rubin was an interior designer and a local radio personality. She formed the Columbia Theatre Task Force, which included Tom Slater. He was the vice president of the group for 10 years and recently described Rubin to KNKX.
“She was kind of a gruff person, but a gruff person if you didn’t know her – she had a heart of gold,” he said. “She’s just a wonderful gal, hard working, very smart. I just thought the world of her – and tireless energy.”
Slater now lives in Vancouver, Washington, and is a little fuzzy on the details that led to saving the theater, but he remembers what drew him to the venue. He said it was built with timber from a local mill. At that time, it had the original pipe organ that was played during silent movies. And, Slater said, it had some of the best acoustics on the West Coast.
“I wanted to save the theater for the fact that it was historic,” he said. “It’d been around all those years at that time, and it would have been a shame to tear it down.”
He said it took time to lobby local businesses and the city council to convince them that the theater was worth saving. Eventually, Slater said, they got on board.
“One of the first things the city did was earmark a hotel tax for the Columbia Theatre,” he said. “That was very important. And we were fundraising in the community. We were having board meetings — committee meetings — in the theater, and, at one time, we had to pass the hat to make enough to pay the manager’s salary.”
Three years after the blast, in 1983, the City of Longview bought the building for $450,000. Since then, it’s gone through multiple capital campaigns and has received funding from Washington state for upgrades.
Ragsdale, the current theater director, credits Rubin and the eruption of Mount St. Helens for saving the theater.
“If there wasn’t that delay, we wouldn’t be talking,” she said. “Despite all the devastation, it was really important. So yeah, we wouldn’t be here without that — it would have just closed.”
Today, the theater offers film festivals, year-round arts education programming and features performances from well-known touring acts, such as Pink Martini. However, Ragsdale said, the theater is not immune to low attendance that most theaters and performing arts spaces are dealing with right now.
She said taking care of the 100-year-old building is a “Herculean task.”
“We still have a lot of repairs — a lot of things that we’re responsible for maintaining,” Ragsdale said. “We are looking at addressing some structural deficiencies and historic preservation that we are doing, as part of a $3.5 million capital campaign.”
That capital campaign is contingent on two things. The Washington state Legislature is considering its biennial budget, which currently includes a $1 million grant for the theater. The grant is a matching grant, which means the theater has to pony up $2 million by July to unlock it, if approved.
In the meantime, the Columbia Theatre Association for the Performing Arts celebrated its 100-year anniversary with a rededication and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, featuring free film screenings and a performance by the Southwest Washington Symphony. That kicked off a weekend of tours, more live music and film screenings.
The Columbia Theatre in Longview, Wash., opened its doors on April 4, 1925. This historical photo is dated March 13, 1925.
Courtesy of Columbia Theatre Association for the Performing Arts
Freddy Monares is a reporter with KNKX. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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