Download History of the Ritz - Long 2012

A brief history of the Ritz Building
The Beginning
In 1911 Thomas Saucier, a successful local carpenter, purchased the land on which this building
would be constructed. Saucier had been in Lewiston since at least 1889. By 1893, he had moved
into the building at 502 Lisbon Street, just around the corner from the present site of The Public
Theatre. By 1902, a narrow, two-story structure had been added to the side of the Lisbon Street
building. It is believed that Saucier built it as a workshop and office for his growing business. By
1906, he was advertising as a contractor and builder.
Sitting behind 502 Lisbon St., facing Maple Street, were two vacant lots, sandwiched between two
four-story apartment buildings. In 1911, Saucier bought the first of the two from the Franklin Co., a
land-holding corporation associated with the city’s textile mills. He built a lumber shed on this lot,
and by the next year was calling himself a lumber dealer. In 1913, he purchased the second lot.
Saucier’s lumber business, however, was not confined to these two pieces of land. It extended from
Maple Street all the way back toward Locust Street, and by 1914 consisted of three lumber sheds
and five lumber piles, one of which stretched the full width between Lisbon and Park Streets.
A Family Business
In the spring of 1920, Thomas Saucier sold his two Maple Street lots to Joseph Bilodeau. Saucier
moved his lumber shed off the property, and Bilodeau set to work building an automotive garage for
his children. Joseph Bilodeau had emigrated from Canada as a teenager. He married locally in
1890, and earned his livelihood as a carpenter. He built several of the four-story apartment buildings
on Knox Street. At the time he purchased the land on Maple Street and built the garage, he was
approaching retirement. In September of 1920, Bilodeau made his son, Adelard Bilodeau, and his
son-in-law, Gaston Tardif, common owners with himself in the two lots and the new building.
The garage Bilodeau built boasted 20,000 square feet of space and encompassed two stories. The
shape of the building is the same now, as it was then – the front on Maple Street with an ell toward
the back jutting out onto Park Street. The Park Street entrance included a ramp to the second floor,
where most of the repair work was done. The first floor was used primarily as a showroom for
Hudson and Essex automobiles, and later Hudson and Terraplane cars. There was also room for
automobile storage. From the beginning, Bilodeau, Tardif & Co. was open 24 hours a day. The
brothers-in-law provided wrecker and towing services, and in 1926 added a filling station to the
Lisbon Street side.
In 1933, there was a change in ownership, though Adelard Bilodeau remained with the firm until
1938, when Manufacturers National Bank foreclosed on the property.
Le Montagnard
In the 1920’s a group of young Franco-Americans led by Louis-Phillipe Gagné was bemoaning the
fact that Lewiston, Maine, a stronghold of French-Canadian culture, had no snowshoe clubs. Such
clubs were commonplace in Quebec, and attracted young men with their mixture of athletic
competition and social activities. On May 16, 1924, Gagné and some of his friends gathered at the
Lisbon Street jewelry store of Rodolphe Hamel and organized what became New England’s first
snowshoe club, Le Montagnard. Among the early members were Adelard Bilodeau and Gaston
Tardif.
Over the years, Le Montagnard members met at various homes around the city, and finally found a
clubhouse on Maple Street, across from the Bilodeau-Tardif garage. On November 9, 1939, Le
Montagnard was granted a permit from the city to operate a motion picture theater. Seven days
later, they completed the purchase of the Bilodeau garage from Manufacturers National Bank. Club
members renovated the building and on Wednesday, January 31, 1940, the Ritz Theater, under the
management of three Portland businessmen showed its first features, Hitler Beast of Berlin and
Honeymoon in Bali. The shows were continuous, from noon to 10:30 PM most days, and the double
features changed three times a week. The Ritz never had the financial clout to get the best movies
A brief history of the Ritz Building
first, but held its own until 1973, when the theater’s management began showing pornographic films.
A new manager tried more conventional fare in 1979, but the experiment only lasted five months.
The Ritz, still showing X-rated features, went out of business in 1984. Throughout this time Le
Montagnard had its clubhouse on the second floor of the building, above the Ritz Theatre.
A New Era
In the fall of 1991, George Vafiadis, founder and director of the Penobscot Repertory Theatre in
Bangor, decided to relocate to Lewiston-Auburn. He brought with him a three-year plan to establish
a professional theater company in the Twin Cities. Two local residents, Tom Platz and Susan
Weiss, who had an interest in theater and the knowledge and ability to get things done, were asked
to form a board of directors and the L/A Public Theater was born. The first play, That Championship
Season, was staged in a donated space at the Auburn Mall, and sold out two weekends. The
response was so enthusiastic that a second show, Crimes of the Heart, was produced in the spring
of 1992. The support these productions received led Vafiadis and the board to schedule a full
season for 1992-93.
The L/A Public Theater now needed a permanent home. The theatre’s supporters searched the two
cities, and only one building met the bill – the old Ritz Theater. They had looked at the building
earlier and had dismissed it: Vacant for nearly eight years, it was in a deteriorated condition and
located in a marginal neighborhood. But with no other prospects in sight, the Ritz began to look
more promising. They approached Le Montagnard club in the spring of 1992 and agreed on a tenyear lease. What followed surprised everyone. The setting that had first seemed a curse suddenly
became a blessing as volunteers, many motivated by the desire to help restore a part of their
heritage, began donating time and materials. Throughout the renovation process, people would
drop by and reminisce about growing up in the Maple Street area and going to the movies at the
Ritz.
It only took two weeks for Le Montagnard club and the theatre to reach an agreement on a lease for
the old Ritz Theater; but it took four months of nearly non-stop work for board members and
volunteers to transform the 1940’s movie house into a 1990’s theater. I took three days just to
dismantle the old projectors and move them upstairs. The screen had to be removed, new wiring
installed, eight-year-old popcorn swept up. Over 200 seats were torn out to create a lobby. The
remaining seats were dismantled, and 395 of the best seats were repainted, reupholstered and
reinstalled. In the meantime, the board had approached the city of Lewiston with a request for help.
The City Council responded with a $10,000 grant. It was later supplemented with a decision to tear
down the two four-story tenement buildings that had bordered the land from the time Thomas
Saucier had bought his two lots in 1911 and 1913.
On Friday, October 9, 1992, the L/A Public Theater opened its production of Molière’s Scapin to a
sold-out audience in a building and location rich with history and promise. The theatre produced
three more plays that season. Soon after the final production, Talley’s Folly, closed in May of 1993,
Vafiadis informed the board that he was moving to Washington, D.C.
A national search for a new artistic director began and Christopher Schario of New York City was
hired in June of 1993 to take over the fledgling company. Early on Schario made two critical
decisions. The first was that the theatre would operate under a contract with Actors’ Equity
Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. This
guaranteed that the theatre had access to the most talented, well trained and experienced actors
from New York and New England, which would bring the artistic quality of the productions to a level
equal to that of other major professional theatres in the region. The second decision was to change
the name of the company from the L/A Public Theatre to The Public Theatre. This decision was
made following the results of a focus group that showed widespread confusion between L/A Public
Theatre and L/A Arts. Many people in the community simply assumed that the theatre was a
A brief history of the Ritz Building
subsidiary of L/A Arts, another non-profit arts group in town. This created identity problems, fund
raising problems and other issues that could only be rectified by a change in name.
Over the next two seasons, as the theatre enjoyed meteoric growth in attendance, programming and
fundraising, the problems of having a social club upstairs became more apparent. Often Le
Montagnard hosted events that interfered with the performance in the theatre. In the summer of
1995 the building went on the market. The theatre considered buying it but the asking price was too
steep and the building was sold to Mark Myles, who proceeded to develop the upstairs as a pool
hall. For the next three seasons the disturbances from upstairs continued and when Myles put the
building on the market in late 1998, the theatre decided whatever the cost, it must own the building.
By this point The Public Theatre was no longer a struggling company. Now it was a cornerstone in
the cultural life of Lewiston/Auburn. It was honored by the New England Theatre Conference for its
artistic excellence, and was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Maine Arts
Commission, Maine Humanities Council, Helen & George Ladd Charitable Corporation, Davis
Family Foundation and scores of local businesses and individuals. In three months the theatre
raised over one hundred thousand dollars, and bought the building.
Setting the Stage for the Future
Despite the success of the Theatre, many obstacles remained that limited our production
capabilities and compromised the comfort of our patrons, staff, and actors. To address these issues,
in 2002, the Board of Directors proposed a $2.5 million renovation to make the final transition to a
theatre facility ideally suited for live, professional performances. Although it faced a daunting task,
the Board decided that preserving and restoring this unique piece of Lewiston’s rich history would be
far more important and less expensive than constructing a new theatre. The Public Theatre asked
the architectural firm of Platz Associates to design a theatre that would enhance The Public
Theatre’s production capabilities and provide a more comfortable and inclusive milieu for patrons,
staff, volunteers, and actors. Maintaining The Public Theatre’s intimate and inviting atmosphere
was paramount to the plans as this is a hallmark of The Public Theatre.
Since its inception The Capital Campaign has garnered almost $1.6 million in financial support from
individuals, corporations and private foundations. With these funds many significant projects have
been completed, including the renovations that carry the most visible impact; new restrooms, lobby
area and box office. A new HVAC system brought efficient heating and returned air-conditioning to
the auditorium for the first time since its days as a movie theater. In Fall of 2009 the business office
was moved into it's new space upstairs in the building. As part of this renovation the windows on
the second floor were replaced. For the first time since its inception, The Public Theatre is housed
entirely in the Theatre building. These improvements have made a great impact on the theatre
experience for our patrons. Refurbishing the exterior and installing a new sign has allowed us to
present a highly visible symbol of the rebirth of the area, bringing a long standing landmark building,
whose drab exterior belied the vibrant activity within, into harmony with the new construction that
has joined us in revitalizing and anchoring the Southern “Gateway” to Lewiston.
Originally researched and written by Lisa Giguere – 1993
Edited and additional material added by The Public Theatre staff – 2001, 2009, 2012
The Public Theatre
31 Maple Street
Lewiston, Maine 04240
207-782-3200
www.thepublictheatre.org