Historic Plaza Needs Buyer To Continue Town Legacy

WAITSBURG - Robbie and Mari- lyn Johnson hope the person who buys the Plaza Theatre from them will bring it to life for the community. The couple put the mission-style theater on the market recently for $499,000.

"We know that there are people out there (who want it)," Robbie Johnson said. "We hope there's somebody who has the vision."

The Johnsons purchased the Plaza on April 1, 2004, from the Sickle Family and have spent the last eight years renovating the apartment upstairs, the bathrooms and shop spaces downstairs as well as the auditorium.

He said his favorite memories of the plaza were when his family was living in the apartment upstairs. He hopes the new owner will also reside in the building and "invite the community in once in a while."

A Theater For Waitsburg

Prior to being named The Plaza, the original name of the theater was The Neace. The Neace Theatre opened to the public on Feb. 2, 1929.

Before the spot at the intersection of Preston Avenue and Main Street boasted a theater, a building there was inhabited by the Waitsburg Saloon, from 1889 to 1900, according to "Waitsburg: One Of A Kind" by Vance Orchard. The theater was built for more than $25,000 by Donald Neace. It was named The Neace Theatre after Don- ald's grandfather, Lewis Neace, who had died in 1916. Lewis Neace was a pioneer farmer and businessman of Waitsburg.

The theater first showed the silent film "The Res- cue," according to a story in The Times in 1929. The building was made of fire-proof construction throughout and could seat 315 people. The lobby was 17 by 20 feet and the build- ing had a smoking room and a ladies room to the right and left of the lobby.

The drapes of the stage were a heavy, orange-col- ored velvet and a Wurlitzer organ provided music for the silent films.

Johnson said the original projector in the top of the building had a carbon arc projector. This kind of projector lit the film reels by a small, ball of fire that creates pure, white light, according to buffalofilm- festival.com.

The architect of the building was Victor Siebert of Walla Walla and Ed M. Buroker was the general contractor.

The Feb. 8, 1929 edition of the Times describes the theater's grand opening and how "a large number of people," and many from out of town, attended the event.

The line of people want- ing to attend the event ex- tended almost half a block. The foyer and stage of the theater were decorated with flowers from individu- als and businesses and the crowd enjoyed an organ recital by Mrs. Donald Neace.

" Waitsburg now has one of the most perfectly arranged and lavishly fur- nished little play houses in the state," the reporter for the Times wrote.

After the Neace Family, the Plaza was also oper- ated by Denzil Piercy, John Hulce, Walter Weller, Wal- ter Hamilton, Eddie Rivers, Ray Peacock, Kash Kilpinski, Phil Monfort and Jack Otterson, according to Orchard's history book.

The business spaces had been occupied by insur- ance companies, electric companies and barbers and the Plaza was once owned by the City of Waitsburg.

The Sickles Family, Bob and Velma Sickles, pur- chased the Plaza in the 1970s from the city in a public auction, Velma Sickles said. The Sickles had the highest bid and used the upstairs apartment as an insurance office and rented out the commercial spaces below.

Velma Sickles said the only time the auditorium was used during the time her family owned the Plaza was early in their owner- ship when they hosted an auction.

Restoration Work

The Johnson Family enters the story in 2000, when Robbie and Marilyn left their farm and beef ranch in Rosburg for Rob- bie to take the position of Waitsburg schools super- intendent. Robbie Johnson said during his early years in Waitsburg he managed to wander into most of the older commercial buildings in town and a significant number of residences. But, he hadn't been in the Plaza building.

One day, Johnson re- members asking Velma Sickles if he could visit the building. He said Velma Sickles' husband Bob had just passed away and she wasn't interested in man- aging the Plaza.

As fate would have it, Johnson was looking to retire from being an educa- tor and was searching for a residential property to rent in Waitsburg. The tour Velma Sickles gave him and his wife Marilyn of the Plaza had him dreaming of possibilities.

" When we saw ( the apartment) we saw all of the potential in the world," he said.

The downstairs still boasted the remnants of a beauty salon and even though the Johnsons had been in town for four years, he said he was shocked to see the auditorium was so large.

"I didn't realize there was an auditorium of that proportion in Waitsburg," he said.

However, with all of the ideas in the world, the Johnsons were still only looking to rent and Velma Sickles wanted to sell. As fate would have it, the price Sickles offered was one the Johnsons could afford without re-mortgaging anything, he said.

"I didn't have a need for it anymore," Sickles said of the sale. "I hated (to sell it) in a way, but I was so glad they kept it and did the work in it."

The Johnsons legally owned the building April 1, 2004, formed an LLC and started a to-do list. The the- ater's "skeleton" had been taken care of well through the years, Robbie Johnson said, but the whole build- ing certainly needed "lots of elbow grease and a little money."

The renovations be- gan almost immediate- ly. The couple lived in a motorhome at the fair- grounds in town for about six months. The bathroom in the Plaza apartment was being gutted and renovat- ed, so Johnson said he and Marilyn begged showers from friends. In about one year, the apartment was completely renovated and ready for the couple. The first phase was to make the "living space livable," he said.

Phase two included the restoration of the two com- mercial spaces downstairs as well as the foyer, lobby and bathrooms.

Phase three was the res- toration work of the audi- torium.

When the commercial spaces were ready, the cou- ple opened the gift shop, Etceteras, in May 2007. The work in the auditorium followed and included many changes to the space. The couple decided not to install all 315 seats and that gave them more area to put in decks for stage space and built a flat area toward the rear of the theater for equipment.

The couple in 2011 and 2012 hosted two shows, Markeeta Little Wolf in concert and comedian Deana Tipton.

They also used scaffold- ing to re-paint the entire inside of the auditorium and restored original detailing that had been covered in coal soot from the original coal heating system.

With the bulk of the auditorium work done and aging family members who need care, the Johnsons decided now is the time to get it sold.

"It will never be com- pletely done," Robbie Johnson said. "Family is going to come first."

Etceteras is still open sporadically as the Johnsons travel back and forth from the East side to the West side of the state to take care of family.

They reside in a home on Murphy Street and even if the Plaza sells, Johnson said his family won't leave Waitsburg completely.

He's excited to hear ideas of prospective buy- ers who will continue to breathe life into the old theater.

"There's no end here," he said. "You just have to let it go. I am an old buz- zard. I've come to the real- ization that buildings like this outlive you."