Lafayette’s Park Theater got a thorough scrubbing from a team of dedicated volunteers Saturday, a cleanup crew from the local Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary HOME Team pulling out the stops and power washers to get the old movie house gleaming again.
The Park, recently purchased by a citizen’s group determined to get the storied movie house back up and serving as a contributing community member, was scrubbed and primped by a squad of hard-working volunteers.
The campaign to purchase, remodel and re-launch the small but streamlined Park Theater as a re-visioned model of suburban re-use took a significant step forward recently when the deco-ish cinema was purchased by a community trust.
Close of escrow was celebrated by the community-based Park Theater Trust (TPTT) with the announcement of a partnership agreement between TPTT and practiced movie-house operators Adam Bergeron and Jaimi Holker of CinemaSF in San Francisco.
Though the effort remains $5 million away from the funding needed to bring TPTT’s vision of a modernized, two-theater, ADA accessible cinema complete with a rooftop bar to Lafayette, the group hopes the partnership and CinemaSF’s first foray into the East Bay will result in showings of first-run art and indie films in a suburban location.
Plans are to reopen the Park in 2023, with interested parties or, perhaps, a person with very deep pockets able to access additional information about the effort at www.parktheatertrust.org.
Yay!!
People Power!
Thank god!
Now we need a group to help us save the original 1920s Pleasant Hill School House, owned by Rec And Park department, sitting in despair! The original 1920s school house is iconic,charming and historically significant. See my change.org and please write to Michelle Lacy, the general manager of the Rec And Park department, bobbi Glover, Sandy Vinson etc. etc. save it!