MCCF

Culver Theater Thoughts

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I’ve been to four meetings in the past few weeks where the Culver Theater was discussed. This is about the Culver Theater on Lake Shore Drive, not the former ones on Main Street. It has been through many reiterations and multiple names, but its days as a movie theater ended more than a decade ago under the weight of increasingly expensive film rental fees in an aging venue. Before it closed, it had weathered the onslaught of VHS rentals (remember Bick’s Flicks at 820 Academy Road?), but lost the battle to streaming services such as Netflix.

Tom Ruane, a Culver Academies grad, bought the property with a sense of nostalgia and a passion to bring it back to life. I met with Tom several times regarding his passion project. During one of those meetings I climbed through the rafters with him and at another, I and the contractor he had working there stood on the marquee, verifying that it was structurally sound. (The then Building Commissioner/Inspector didn’t agree due to some loose soffit.)

CMA Cadets lining up at the El Rancho Matinee

Tom had made a false start at a Not-For-Profit (NFP) to pull the project together that initially failed. His second pass at a Theater NFP did better and was moving the project forward when Tom tragically passed away in January of 2020. Tom’s vision for the future of the theater was a bit scattered, but it was based in his memories of visiting the theater as a Culver Cadet. The Saturday matinees were very popular as one of the few places a cadet could take a date and sit in the dark, relatively unsupervised! The theater was generally full, regardless of what was playing. Several other Culver Academies grads had also expressed an interest in Tom’s vision, so there was some financial backing. Tom invited me to be on the NFP board, but I chose to pass on that opportunity. Kudos to those who stepped up.

Tom’s untimely passing set the group back as the property was tied up in probate for a period of time. It’s finally been released to the NFP’s control. With that piece in place, the Culver Redevelopment Commission has chosen to support them in an READI grant application. This is for the Arts & Culture portion of READI. Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) will also be supporting this effort. Since it is Lilly Foundation money, the MCCF endorsement will carry weight.

The NFP is concentrating on the theater. They have had it reviewed by Indiana Landmarks, who deemed it old, but not historic. While having mixed feelings about that, it has released them to dream bigger and look at building new in lieu of trying to renovate. Their current plan is to create a multi-media venue similar to what the Rees Theatre in Plymouth has become. To accomplish this, they are requesting +/- 20′ in additional property to be donated to the theater from the adjacent Town of Culver parcel to the west. This would give them a building width of 50′. It wasn’t stated, but I assume they are going to extend the building to the north as well. There is some depth to gain towards the alley. They are not planning to extend above the 35′ height restriction, though if they follow through with a rooftop patio, they would need to accommodate an elevator/stair shaft extending above the roof line.

The Osborn Hotel at the NW corner of Ohio & Jefferson Streets

The Town of Culver has bigger plans and their READI application included money for the theater, but also included money for planning renovations all along the portion of Lake Shore Drive (LSD) adjacent to the Town Park and including in the Park. This falls under the most recent Comprehensive Plan recommendations to create an entertainment district in this area. One thing I thought interesting about this was their concern of not increasing the heights along this stretch of Lake Shore Drive. They will be limiting development and, to be somewhat mercenary, assessed value… This strikes me as odd since we have current buildings such as the First Farmers Bank & Trust building and The Cove exceeding that height restriction, they are planning a new Institutional zoning district for the Culver Academies that explicitly waives that height restriction because of the number of buildings they build higher, and even historical buildings from the past such as the Osborn Hotel were above that level.

I appreciate the Culver theater NFP’s enthusiasm, but I do have some concerns. The Rees Theater in Plymouth is a beautiful and popular venue, bringing entertainment and visitors to Plymouth on a regular basis. That said, it continues to struggle financially. There is no doubt that it is a resource for the City of Plymouth, but it’s sustainability is a concern. They had hoped to achieve an endowment capable of bridging this gap, but so far, that effort has stalled. While it is currently a fairly new facility, there will be maintenance & renovation requirements in the future, that they will be unable to save for if they are not viable on a self-supporting basis. That means they will be going back to the well to find donors to save it again. Culver’s Theater will be a smaller venue in a smaller community. Sustainability will be a challenge in the smaller market. The question in my mind isn’t whether this is a laudable thing to do that Culver will benefit from, but more to the point of whether they can fund an endowment on top of the construction costs that keeps the dream alive.

The funding won’t be the only challenge. Culver does an above average job of communication on new programs and changes. That can be a double-edged sword, as it allows the NIMBYs to organize and be vocal. If I had to guess, I would say that bringing the theater back is a typical 80/20 issue in Culver with 80% support. Despite that there are already naysayers from the adjacent condos to the north concerned about losing their view, others bemoaning the already strained parking situation on summer weekend evenings and still others begrudging the Town giving up any of the adjacent lot for the venture to another NFP. You would hope the majority would prevail, but the other voices will be heard. Even among the supporters, there is some misconception regarding the Town’s lot to the west, assuming that it could be used for theater parking. To date, the Town has always kept this lot reserved for the fire department, so there’s no reason to expect that to change… or to change without the fire department pitching a fit…

A few thoughts on the parking:

  1. Lake Shore Drive (LSD) is kind of a mess. The Right-of-Way (ROW) meanders and has an inconsistent width. While the GIS is likely off in some areas, it would appear there are encroachments. At a recent Redevelopment Commission meeting, infrastructure issues were alluded to. If major changes are in the works for LSD, parking could be examined at the same time. The width would allow some narrowing, possibly changing some of the parallel parking to angle parking or with the width, maybe some of the angle parking could become 90 degree parking. In either case, additional spaces may be achievable. Any narrowing of the traffic lanes would increase pedestrian safety as well. (One of the previous plans suggested consideration of a small round-a-bout at the bend in LSD at the entrance to the park to enhance safety and traffic control.)
  2. While the Town is encouraging biking through the addition of the trails, very little is being done with biking infrastructure in the LSD or Main Street shopping areas. A few bike racks could encourage bike use, freeing up spaces.
  3. The Town sells 800+ golf cart permits each year. The funds from those permits could be used to create some golf cart spaces throughout the LSD area. There are creative ways to do this. One suggestion would be to turn some of the parallel parking into angle golf cart parking. This would be a two or three to one gain in parking spaces Just turning the end of aisle space in an angle parking or 90 degree parking space into two stacked golf cart spaces would be positive.
  4. I know this would be a tough sell with the fire department, but the existing lot configuration is inefficient. The lot could be reconfigured to have more spaces and still have designated fire fighter parking for emergencies. They could be allowed to block it off for events and truck maintenance while allowing the theater, restaurants and Park to gain spaces that currently sit vacant +90% of the time.

So, if you follow me here, you know I like to think outside the box. Here’s a more radical idea if the theater fails to gain traction on Lake Shore Drive. The Town wants the theater torn down, so the existing structure will be gone, one way or another. What if the theater group is unsuccessful there? Would they consider continuing the mission to provide an entertainment venue? Would they consider the preservation of another historic building? In the current Culver real estate market, the lot the theater sits on would sell for a stupid amount of money. The condo owners to the north would bid it up, just to keep it empty. Another developer would no doubt look at a multi story building with condos and maybe a bit of first floor retail. That could be seed money to do something else. What could that something else be?

Take a look at the Wesley United Methodist Church on School Street. As with many modern Methodist Churches, the congregation suffered a schism over a divergence is their beliefs. As with many of the Churches in Culver, Wesley United Methodist Church was already struggling with membership attrition, which was only exacerbated by the split. Is this a chance to save this Church before it lands on Indiana Landmarks Sacred Places list? Constructed in the 50’s (by Easterday Construction!), it is an iconic Culver fixture that should be preserved.

The building is in relatively good condition. Aside from the Sanctuary, which could continue its life as a public gathering space, it also includes a secondary entertainment area in the basement where there has been a stage as well. It has a large, working kitchen, an elevator to access both floors, and many ancillary classrooms and offices that could be repurposed. It sits on wide streets with ample parking and for larger events, it sits a block away from the school parking lots to the north and south. If the venue is successful, College Avenue is wide enough to convert some of the parking to angle parking for additional spaces and the Church owns a vacant lot to the north that could be converted to parking as well.

This takes it away from being in the “Entertainment District”, but in some ways, that’s not a bad thing. The location is easily accessible and does not carry the same parking issues that LSD has. The Church building would be preserved, The Church congregation would no longer have the crushing maintenance issues above and beyond those necessary for the congregation size and thus, would have funds available for growth and pursuit of their mission.

I realize this idea will be scoffed at and likely ridiculed, not in the least by the current Wesley United Methodist Church members, but it is mainly an exercise in looking at options and not being too tightly tied to just one solution. Being fixated on an original idea, can sometimes become debilitating, when there may be more than one solution.

I hope the theater is successful in some form and figures out the sustainability issue. The revival of the theater has been high on the list of surveys done for recent comprehensive plans, and the Stellar efforts. It is good that it is getting some attention, whether it comes to fruition or not.

Positive Collaboration

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I was pleased to be one of the Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) board members to attend a regional meeting of MCCF with the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County (CFSJC) and the Community Foundation of Elkhart County (CFEC). The basis of this was to foster regional collaboration on a Lilly grant that would help create more housing in our respective counties. It was great to see the groups come together and work towards a common goal. MACOG was also there, having stepped up to consider offering their services towards a Land Bank or similar vehicle to help move this forward.

I have been involved with several of these types of collaborative efforts in the past. As a Culver Chamber of Commerce (CCC) board member, I helped John Thompson and Eric Freeman create the Culver Second Century Committee. The Second Century Committee used CCC support to pull various non-profits and governmental bodies together to work towards common goals. It was successful for a brief time, creating collaboration among the various entities and was responsible for the 1998 Community Charrette and the new Comprehensive Plan that was born of the Charrette.

I was a founding member of the Marshall County Economic Development Corp. (MCEDC), which brought representatives from the county and each of the municipalities together to foster a collaborative effort towards economic growth. While chairman of MCEDC, I worked with Roger Umbaugh and Kevin Overmyer to start the County Development for the Future (CDFF) meetings. The CDFF meetings were started to bring the communities of Marshall County together to discuss challenges, successes and ways they could collaborate to learn from each other and make things better. One of the successes of CDFF was the community collaboration that brought about Marshall County Crossroads and Marshall County’s successful bid for Stellar Region designation.

I always have high hopes for these collaborative efforts. They really do bring the strengths of multiple people, agencies and entities together to create something bigger than the individual parts. There does seem to be a limited life span for them though. The Second Century Committee came together and did great things by organizing the participating groups. But then as the second generation of leaders took the reigns, it devolved into an executive committee that met and did most of the tasks themselves. They no longer had meetings to involve the underlying groups so the big initiatives went away. As the members of the exec committee burned out, less got done. They attempted to evolve into a Main Street organization, but that transition was not very successful. Main Street reorganized as Develop Culver. While Develop Culver is creating some successes, it’s not with the same larger collaboration of groups that made the Second Century Committee successful.

CDFF was extremely successful. The collaboration between communities broke down the long standing basketball rivalries and had Marshall County Communities working together. Attendees applauded the successes of their sister communities and networked after the meetings on ways to replicate those successes in the other Marshall County Communities. The other communities were all-in when Culver sought Stellar Community designation and helped make it happen. Because of that, I think CDFF was largely responsible for spawning Marshall County Crossroads and the designation of Marshall County as a Stellar Region. But a transition to a new executive director of MCEDC resulted in meetings that were more about his self-promotion and less about the collaboration. CDFF helped move us into the larger region with St. Joe and Elkhart counties when Regional Cities as launched, but at the cost of lost focus on our local communities and the tending of those new relationships. The meetings have devolved further and no longer list the accomplishments and goals of the communities. While they often bring useful information to those that attend, some communities no longer send representatives and there is no longer accountability or celebration of successes.

I was only peripherally involved with Marshall County Crossroads, serving on the larger committee and a subcommittee without having any leadership role. Crossroads took the base collaboration of CDFF and injected it with new life. It was CDFF on steroids for a while! The number of people that it brought in was amazing and the work that got done by the volunteer group was phenomenal. They accomplished the base goal of obtaining Stellar Region designation for Marshall County and set a follow up goal of continuing the collaboration and moving other issues forward as well. But the huge effort required for Stellar became difficult to sustain with a volunteer group. Crossroads has tried to spawn a new and more formal group, ONE Marshall County, but funding has been difficult and communication has deteriorated. Many of the Crossroads leaders have stepped aside and the new group is struggling to sustain the enthusiasm while also fighting some local politicians that (falsely) accuse them of trying to bypass normal government procedures. This has devolved back to infighting among communities. It’s unclear whether the group will survive Wolfe’s Dilemma.

While I continue to be supportive of collaborative efforts and think it results in outsized returns on investment, I’m coming to think that maybe they could work best as task forces in lieu of standing committees or long term organizations. So much of the initial energy and work is done by the original people starting the collaboration, but that energy and focus can become lost as the initial leaders burnout and others come in who don’t understand or agree with the core mission. Maybe they should be treated like fireworks that explode in a bright frenzy that everyone is excited about, and then everyone applauds at the end and everyone leaves happy as the smoke dissipates… Trying to sustain that frenetic energy isn’t possible and lesser results are seen as disappointing.

For this reason, I’m pleased that the three community foundations seem to be coming together for a common goal, but instead of forming a new group, they’re looking to MACOG to expand their services to sustain this. Combining the excitement and energy that bringing volunteers together generates with the infrastructure of an existing organization makes sense. This could be a new model that works. Only time will tell…

Heritage Park Pergola Dedication

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The Heritage Park Pergola Dedication was in the Culver Citizen last week. The project was built by Easterday Construction Co., Inc. in the 90’s. It was commissioned by Richard Ford. I’ve discussed it here, here and here in the past.

One of the cool things about working in construction is the ability to drive around our area and see the projects that become history over time. Great Grandpa Easterday wasn’t the best about recording the early history of Easterday Construction… He was too busy running a business! But for those of us that remember, we see reminders of our beginnings as we look around Culver and throughout our region.

The Pony Barn remains adjacent to the Easterday Construction Co., Inc. office as a reminder of when the site was the Easterday beef farm at the edge of town. (Before the high school was built, neighborhood kids would ride their bikes to the north end of Slate Street and feed treats to the Grandpa Easterday’s Hereford Cattle in the field there.) The dedication marker on the elementary school gym is a reminder of a depression era project we completed, when we had a three digit phone number and our offices were in on the top floor of the State Exchange Bank Building (Now First Farmers Bank & Trust). Those that remember that history are disappearing. Only the 3rd and 4th generations of the Easterday Construction family remain and some of them have passed on. Those of us that are left still remain proud of the mark we have left in the history of Culver and surrounding communities.

MC Squared

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When the Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) built their new facility, it was to house MCCF, Marshall County United Way (MCUW) and Growing Kids Learning Center. The building would belong to MCCF. MCCF would continue to operate with joint staff shared with MCUW. Growing Kids would be a rent paying tenant. When it came time to name the building, I lobbied hard for some iteration of MC2. I thought it was a no brainer, since it fit with the joint philosophy of MCCF and MCUW, that the two groups together were more than the sum of their parts, i.e. MCCF x MCUW not MCCF + MCUW. Oh, well… This was one of those cases where what seemed obvious to me wasn’t palatable to others. The building is now known as the Marshall County Philanthropy Center. I’m sorry, but 7 years later, who knows that or refers to that!? We could have had something much more catchy! Ha!

I wasn’t involved at the start of One Marshall County. I do kind of like that name, but I go back to it also being an organization designed to be more than the sum of its parts. Another missed opportunity to use MC2. If I’d been involved at the beginning of Marshall County Crossroads, I would really have hit this hard for them too!

So I’m throwing this out there. Some Marshall County organization or group of organizations should be the first to pick up MC2 and run with it! If your name works in an “E”, even better since you could really roll with all of Einstein’s equation. What group doesn’t strive to be faster than light? Well, I guess there’s always Heinz Ketsup which bragged on being think in their Anticipation commercial. Oooo! Oooo! Maybe MCEDC! They have all three letters in there!

You may not of heard it here first, but I haven’t heard anyone else in Marshall County using MC2. It’s free advice. Run with it!