Funding can help launch structural evaluation

They say it takes money to make money - and grant writers for the Whiteside Theatre Foundation hope they're right.

Last month the foundation received a $5,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help pay for a structural evaluation of the Whiteside, the vintage Corvallis movie palace the nonprofit group is working to restore seven years after it shut down.

It will take a lot more than $5,000 to complete the structural analysis, which is just one of several engineering evaluations the 87-year-old theater needs to guide the renovation work. But foundation fundraisers say this grant is a key first step in bankrolling the project.

"Now that we have one from the trust, we can use that as a match for others," said B.A. Beierle, a member of the foundation's grant team.

"Most granting agencies require a one-to-one match. They'll give you a buck, but they want you to have a buck to match it with."

Foundation members believe the Whiteside is structurally sound, but Corvallis building officials and the group's insurance carrier want a professional evaluation before lifting occupancy restrictions.

Currently, no more than 20 people can be inside at one time. That mandate has kept the foundation from throwing open the doors for benefit performances or other public fundraising activities since Regal Entertainment Group donated the mothballed cinema last May.

The grant award came on the heels of another piece of good news for the foundation: the Whiteside's listing on the National Register of Historic Places. That, too, should aid fundraising.

In the world of historic preservation, a spot on the register gives the Whiteside additional prestige. To some extent, it's a mark of legitimacy among the public agencies and private foundations that the theater's boosters are courting for cash.

"It just makes us more competitive," Beierle said. "If an agency is looking at two historic properties and one is a resource with no historic designation and the other is listed on the national register, that makes it more appealing for an underwriter."

Of course, the foundation isn't restricting itself to grants alone as a funding source. It continues to solicit donations and dues-paying members through its Web site, whitesidetheatre.org.

"It's going to take all of those," said Louise-Annette Burgess, who chairs the foundation's board of directors.

"It's going to take grants, it's going to take donations, it's going to take ticket sales - it's going to take all of us working together to restore this theater."

Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.

TAKE A TOUR

The public is invited to tour the Whiteside Theatre at 3 p.m. May 20 as part of National Preservation Month. Space is limited to the first 12 people who make a reservation with Sharon Crowell at 766-6908. Additional tours may be added if demand is high.