A Waiting Game

After 68 years vacant, a new use still is sought for the Alhambra Theatre.

VITAL STATS
Name: Alhambra Theatre
Address
: 50 Adams Ave.
Year Built: 1913
Designer: Frank J. Schlotter
Style: Moorish Revival

Historical Footnote: Alhambra Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Visit the Haynieโ€™s Corner Arts District for any event, and the Alhambra Theatre catches the eye with its striking Moorish faรงade and neon lights.

Its inside, however, remains a different story โ€” cavernous, dank, and unusable.

Evansville real estate agents Ken Haynie III and Aaron Kendall own the property โ€” Haynieโ€™s Corner is named for Kenโ€™s great-grandfather, the late drug store owner George Haynie. Kendall says finding a contemporary purpose for the theater has proved to be an expensive and complicated proposition.

The current owners had earlier discussed plans for an events venue, but the pandemic of 2020 threw that plan off track. โ€œI think it would have been up and running if not for COVID,โ€ Kendall says.

Beloved by its neighborhood, the road to restore Alhambra Theatre has been long and bumpy.

The venue opened in 1913 as a 350-seat, neighborhood movie theater. That usage ended in 1956, and the Alhambra now has been devoid of purpose for 68 years โ€” longer than it was in business.

In hopes that a facelift would bring new business, its exterior was renovated from 2003 to 2013. Haynieโ€™s and Kendallโ€™s company, Alhambra Events LLC, obtained owner-ship in December 2017 from the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana.

But as for when an interior restoration might occur, or what such a project would look like, there are no clear answers.

Kelley Coures, former head of the Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development, says that while serving on the Arts Council board in 2017, โ€œwe had a study done on rehabbing the interior, and to create a 120-seat theater with accessible restrooms, it would take about $1.5 to $2 million.โ€ Kendall and Haynie bought the building soon after.

Kendall told Evansville Business in early 2018 that he and Haynie would not โ€œmove forward with anything until we have the right end product in mind.โ€

Six years later, that still appears to be the case. Kendall told the magazine in September that grant funding is being pursued, โ€œbut as far as having a use that weโ€™re moving forward with, weโ€™re still not there.โ€

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