JACKSON SCHOOLS BEGIN PLANNING TO RECLAIM AUDITORIUM'S BEAUTY

JACKSON -- The Jackson High School auditorium may be a design disaster now, but in the beginning it was the latest thing in modern architecture. Now some Jackson residents are hoping to whip it back into shape.

Building C, which houses the auditorium, was originally an elementary school built as a Work Projects Administration project in 1938. According to a Sept. 3, 1939, story in the Southeast Missourian, the school was funded by a $75,000 bond issue and $66,000 in WPA monies and was "the last word in modern construction".

Now it's more of a compilation of designing don'ts, but Superintendent Dr. Howard Jones and the staff of the student newspaper The Squawler believe there's a wealth of richness just under the salmon-and-coral-colored surface.

Jones received approval from the Board of Education last week to organize a planning committee to refurbish the auditorium. The Squawler staff will send out interest surveys to solicit names for the committee in their next issue. Jones hopes members of the community will donate the time, funding and equipment needed to modernize the auditorium and restore some of its former elegance.

"There's something about taking an old theater and recognizing the agelessness of the arts," said Jones. "We'd like to take next year to do planning and fund raising to be ready to begin in May or June of 1998. We'll have to work in stages but this could be a very beautiful, intimate theater for school and community events."

Jones said he hopes the committee will decide to refurbish many of the original architectural features of the auditorium. The lobby of the auditorium features oak paneling and golden-veined Ste. Genevieve marble covering the bottom half of the walls. There is also a seldom-used ticket booth with more marble and oak accents.

In the lobby and throughout the auditorium are ornate bas-relief designs on the walls and vent coverings that seem out of place in a school atmosphere. Nearly 550 birch seats are staggered in three different sizes so that all theatergoers can see the stage.

"The seats are really unique because just looking at them you wouldn't know they're different sizes," Jones said. "That's just one more thing that makes this auditorium so interesting architecturally and designwise."

Jones said most of the work needed is labor intensive but not expensive. Painting the walls and ceiling, sanding and varnishing all of the oak doors and paneling and replacing stage curtains would not amount to huge expenses, he said. However, modernizing the seating and updating the lighting and sound systems would require more of a financial commitment from the school district and community.

"Because this is really not just a building for the district to use, I believe the public would want to be involved in this," said Jones. "There would have to be some commitment from the district, but I believe the community would also benefit from refurbishing the auditorium and would want to contribute to this."

Jones already has had one of the seats from the auditorium refurbished to show what the seats could look like. "We would want to keep this as original as possible," he said. "One of the sacrifices we may make is to lose some of the seating capacity so we can have more knee room."

The Cape Girardeau School District completed a similar remodeling project in its auditorium in 1995. Some of the funding for that project, which cost more than $65,000, was collected by having community members adopt auditorium chairs. Jones said a similar adoption program could work for the Jackson auditorium.

Several people already have expressed an interest in helping with the planning committee. Jones said he hopes to have interior designers and fine arts staff on the committee, as well as anyone interested in refurbishing the auditorium.

"There are just so many features that you won't find in newer auditoriums," he said. "I'm probably looking at it more as a lover of antiquity than anything, but the architectural detail is exceptional here, and I'd like to see it as it used to be."