|
A happy ending
in store for the Athena
You remember the Athena Cinema: The streetfront ticket booth, the
small lobby with its tiny concession stand, the smell of 85 years’
worth of popcorn permeating the building and the long, dark theaters’
sticky floors.
 |
|
Rick
Fatica
|
| The
Ohio University-owned Athena will be renovated this summer. |
For a few
weeks this past fall, it seemed as if future Ohio University students
wouldn’t have those memories. The Athena’s owner, Lancaster
businessman William Duerson, announced he was going to sell the
Court Street landmark to a business that didn’t plan to use
it as a theater.
“I couldn’t believe it,” says senior Jane Gewehr,
a regular moviegoer. “It would have been a big loss for Athens.”
Ohio University agreed, although not at first. Officials rejected
Duerson’s initial sales pitch. But when the Athena’s fate
seemed likely to mimic that of the Varsity Theater — which
became a Taco Bell in 1989 — they reconsidered, says Assistant
Vice President for Facilities Planning John Kotowski.
“We feel very strongly about the diversity of opportunities
in and around Athens,” Kotowski says. “Another restaurant
or bar wasn’t going to give that diversity to our students
and staff.”
After another prospect’s offer fell through, the University
signed a purchase agreement to buy the Athena.
A committee headed by Vice President for Student Affairs Michael
Sostarich, MFA ’71, is considering uses for the property. While
it will continue to serve as a community movie house, the building
also will help the campus deal with classroom crunches. The Athena’s
three 200-seat theaters can house some of the large lecture classes
that will be displaced when Bentley Hall closes for renovations
in 2002.
The building also will continue to be one venue for the annual Athens
International Film and Video Festival.
“We want to make it available to groups to show films,”
Sostarich says, noting that the University might move the Midnight
Movies series to the Athena from Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial
Auditorium.
A $1.4 million renovation will give the theater an overdue facelift.
The building, more than a century old, was converted from a vaudeville
house to a movie theater around 1915.
The lobby will be remodeled, and the building will get a new roof,
more projection equipment, better soundproofing and upgraded electrical
and plumbing systems. The theater will close in June for renovations
and reopen at the start of fall quarter.
While Jane Gewehr won’t be around to enjoy the new Athena —
she’s graduating in June — she’s glad it will be
there for other moviegoers.
“It’s especially great for first-year students who can’t
have cars on campus,” she says. “And it gives an alcohol-free
option for entertainment.”
— Corinne Colbert
|
