Columbus’ Crump Theatre has been closed for nearly a decade, but that could change perhaps within a couple of weeks.
Romantic as it is to fall in love with saving an old theater, this must be done with eyes wide open. Spoiler alert: This 134-year-old downtown landmark is going to need more than TLC and the immediate fixes required to pass a fire inspection. If the Crump is permitted to reopen, millions of dollars and years of rehab will lie ahead.
Yet the Crump has an army of white knights riding to its rescue. Plenty of people have indeed fallen in love with the idea of a second act for a unique old venue in a city whose modernist architecture always seems to steal the show.
“We started with grassroots and building it up to show that it was possible (to reopen),” said Jessica Schnepp, project manager for the Crump Theatre. “So getting our entertainment permit (would be) a very big deal to all of us who have been working on it,” The Republic’s Andy East reported last week.
East delved into the long-running issues with the Crump, and comparing studies from almost a decade ago and from more recent times may have given some readers whiplash.
The Crump closed in 2014 because it was deemed unsafe. A study that year compared The Crump’s design with the doomed Iroquois Theater in Chicago, which catastrophically burned 100 years ago. With hundreds of spectators trapped inside, more than 600 people died in one of the deadliest single-building fires in American history.
Former Columbus Fire Chief Dave Allmon said in 2014 that he “would be totally against” reopening the Crump unless multiple issues raised in that report were fixed. They have not all been fixed. Most notably, there is no sprinkler system.
But a more recent study concluded that the Crump wasn’t such a bad building after all, and “was actually constructed such that it met or exceeded good design practices of the day and with the exception of the roof is performing quite well. We are confident it can be saved and re-opened.”
Indeed, current Columbus Fire Department Fire Inspector Troy Todd told East that before the Crump can reopen to the public, “they will have us go through and do an inspection. … But unless it is something critical, we won’t keep them from opening.”
We suspect the Crump is likely closer to the kinder assessment than the older one likening it to a firetrap. To be fair, it’s not 1903. In fact, the “panic bar”/”crash bar” mechanisms required on public exit doors were invented in direct response to the horror of the Iroquois disaster. These have been life-saving building code essentials for generations.
Yet it’s also worth noting that Indiana law allows old buildings to reopen under codes from the 1900s as long major renovation has not triggered compliance with newer building codes.
That said, authorities must conduct a comprehensive inspection and only permit public performances if the building is unquestionably safe. If that happens, the Crump will require an active, years-long, community-wide program organized to raise money for its restoration and plan for its long-term sustainability.
How’s that for a coming attraction?
