The Whiteside Theatre Foundation has formed an endowment to help fund its efforts to restore the historic Corvallis movie house. The endowment is being managed by the Benton County Foundation, which pools and invests money from numerous endowments. Investment earnings are returned to the individual endowments.

"This is a big step for the Whiteside, and one we could only take with community support," Louise-Annette Burgess, the foundation's chairwoman, said in a statement announcing the move. "Even with our immediate financial needs, we felt building a financially sustainable future for the Whiteside was key to responsible fiscal management."

The nonprofit Whiteside Theatre Foundation launched the endowment with $2,500 raised from about a dozen contributors during a direct-mail appeal, said foundation member B.A. Beierle.

"We had one gift as small as $10 (and) we had one gift as large as $1,000," Beierle said.

Proceeds will be reinvested in the endowment to start with, Beierle said. As the principal grows larger, the returns will be used to finance foundation operations and help pay to restore the Whiteside. Current estimates put the cost to renovate the building and install modern projection and sound systems at $1.2 million to $1.4 million.

Built by the Whiteside brothers in 1922, the 922-seat picture palace was later taken over by Regal Entertainment Group, which shut it down in January 2002. Regal donated the property to the foundation last year after the nonprofit group's organizers defeated an attempt to redevelop the theater as a retail and restaurant complex.

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