Encore: Historic S.C. theater to reopen

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Encore: Historic S.C. theater to reopen
March 23, 2010
By Bruce Smith
charlotteobserver.com

CHARLESTON, S.C. The Dock Street Theatre in Charleston's historic district, on the site of America's first theater, is reopening after a three-year, $18 million renovation.

The theater is known to audiences regionally and around the world for the productions staged there by the Spoleto Festival USA.

"This theater for 70-plus years served our city and really the country," said Mayor Joseph Riley, as he conducted a recent tour of the renovated building.

"It became a showpiece for Spoleto Festival USA, and it became... a very special part of the city's history and its cultural and architectural character," he said.

The original Dock Street Theatre, on what was then known as Dock Street, was built in 1736 and was the nation's first. It burned down, and several replacement structures, including a hotel, occupied the site over the centuries.

The existing building was renovated for use as a theater in the 1930s by the economic stimulus agency of that day, the Works Progress Administration.

But after seven decades the Dock Street needed everything from new wiring and plumbing to replacements for termite-damaged timbers, Riley said.

The building also had seismic upgrades for earthquake protection that weren't included in the 1930s.

In 1886 Charleston was rocked by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that killed more than 100 people.

Riley said part of the theater renovations were covered by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.