Mike Wolanin | The Republic An exterior view of the Crump Theatre in Columbus, Ind., Aug. 11, 2023. The marquee bears the message that the theater is open for business after receiving their entertainment permit.
The Crump Theatre has received a permit that would allow the 134-year-old icon of Columbus’ downtown to reopen to the public after being closed for nearly a decade due to safety hazards involving fire dangers and other concerns.
Columbus Crump LLC received an amusement and entertainment permit for the Crump Theatre following a series of inspections, including a site visit by the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s office on Tuesday, according to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.
The permit, which allows the Crump to hold public events, is valid until July 4, 2024, state records show.
The Columbus Fire Department, Bartholomew County Code Enforcement and a structural engineer from Columbus-based Katahdin Engineering LLC also inspected the aging theater before the permit was issued, officials said.
Jessica Schnepp, project manager for the Crump Theatre, did not respond to a request for comment.
However, the Crump Theatre posted a video on its Facebook page of the theater’s marquee lit up at night, stating “We did it” and “Open for business.”
In a Facebook post that accompanied the video, the theater thanked “all who believed in us,” volunteers and businesses and even the “‘Negative Nancys,’ keyboard warriors and naysayers” who “inspired us to work harder and longer to prove … this building had more potential than you thought possible.”
While an evaluation by a local engineering firm filed with Bartholomew County Code Enforcement states that it has “no concerns regarding the structural integrity” of the aging theater, an inspection by the Columbus Fire Department this past Tuesday documented 15 open violations of the state’s fire code in the building.
Some of those violations include extension cords being used to power air conditioning units, open wiring splices, as well as a violation related to set of doors installed between the lobby and the theater that “need to be removed,” according to the CFD’s inspection and local officials.
However, Columbus Fire Inspector Troy Todd said he conducted another inspection on the theater Friday and determined that all 15 of those violations had been fixed.
“Most of (the violations) are normal building maintenance issues,” Todd said. “…It is really not much different than (what) I find in a lot of older buildings that I go into.”
“They have some repairs to do, but they’re as safe (to reopen) as we can require them to be according to the code of record,” Todd added.
In 2014, The Republic reported that the Crump was operating under a building code that dates back to FDR’s tenure in the White House because that was when the theater underwent its last major renovation. Todd said the code of record likely dates back to the mid-1930s to early 1940s.
“The fire code at that time … wasn’t nearly as much detailed as it is now,” though when maintenance is performed on older buildings, the item being fixed often is brought up to current code anyway, Todd said.
Records from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security show that state officials also conducted an initial inspection and site visit this past Tuesday before issuing Crump officials the permit.
State records show that two violations turned up during the initial inspection, including an unlabeled electrical panel and the use of extension cords as permanent power, according to a copy of the inspection.
The Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office has ordered Crump officials to remove extension cords being used as permanent power in the theater’s projector attic and stage basement by Sept. 8 and index and label an electrical panel so that it contains “sufficient detail to allow each circuit to be distinguished from all others” by Oct. 8.
In the meantime, the permit appears poised to add a new chapter in the community’s generations-long romance with the aging theater, which has long seduced many local residents with its historic charms.
The original building that now houses the theater was built in the 1870s with exterior brick masonry walls and wood structural framing. In 1889, the Crump Theatre was constructed, initially serving as a 2,000-seat opera house.
In the 1920s, the opera house was renovated into a movie theater, and the wood balcony, as well as the projection room, lounge, bathrooms and main lobby, were reconstructed with reinforced concrete.
By the late 1990s, water had caused significant deterioration of some of the wooden roof trusses, though the theater would remain open until 2014.
The final public event was a New Year’s Eve party held before the theater closed in January 2014.
Multiple studies on the Crump and what its future could look like have been conducted since then, including some that have given different assessments and recommendations.
In study results released in March 2014, architectural firm Jones & Phillips detailed multiple safety hazards throughout the theater, The Republic reported at the time. The firm gave options to renovate the theater or perhaps tear it down and start over.
Architect Van Phillips, of Jones & Phillips, compared the Crump to a giant fireplace, much like the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago that caught fire in 1903, killing 602 people, including 212 children.
At the time, officials said they felt that the consultants misinterpreted the study’s findings.
In 2020, the Columbus Capital Foundation, which owns the theater, brought in another firm, ARSEE Engineers, to conduct a “critical review” of a third report that “made claims the building was unsafe, eventually leading to its closure.”
ARSEE Engineers evaluated the structural integrity of the theater and what it would take to stabilize it and make it safe so it could be re-opened. They reached a different conclusion than Jones & Phillips, finding that the Crump is in “generally good condition and well worth saving.”
However, the firm said it found several issues that would need to be fixed before the theater could be reopened, including “significant deterioration of the wood roof structure,” though some of the roof trusses supporting the roof could not be observed due to ductwork that reportedly is “covered with asbestos,” the report states.
Steel fire escapes also would need to be reconstructed if the theater’s balcony is to be reopened to the public. However, Crump officials previously said they do not have plans to reopen the balcony to the public at this point.
