NEW BEDFORD_The tall, ornate facade of the Orpheum Theatre dwarfs the urban blight around it as its four, large terracotta faces stare at drivers passing by it on Route 18.

 Arguably the most majestic building in the city's south end, it is the lone survivor of a street that was once a teeming row of shops and other businesses called Water Street, until the construction of Route 18 forced the demolition of most of it.

 A group called Orpheum Rising Project Helpers, Inc. is saying now's the time to bring the deteriorating, historic theater back to life.

 ORPHIC Inc. leader Charles Hauk said the building was saved when Route 18 was installed in the south end because it was too well-built to be torn down.  "Two thousand buildings (in the south end), were torn down, including another theater two doors down," Hauk said.

 His group's mission is to preserve its survival because of its history and its significance to the once bustling south end.  "It would be a shame to just leave it alone to crumble away," Hauk said.

 The theatre opened at 1005 Water St. on Apr. 15, 1912--the infamous day the USS Titanic sank--as one part of a building that also would house stores, a ballroom and the headquarters for a French sharpshooters club.
 
 The club, 'LeFrancs Tireurs', had the building constructed using the design of noted architect Louis Destremps.   The ground floor housed a butcher shop, a barber shop and a five and ten cents store, 'McCrory's'.    The second floor housed the lobby and main floor of the 1500-seat French renaissance style theater, which featured a stage with a 30-foot high presidium arch.

 The third floor housed the theater balcony and an 80'x60' ballroom that hosted dances and other functions such as drum and bugle corps. demonstrations.  This floor also featured a kitchen, a club meeting room, a game room with ping pong and pool tables and a fully-stocked shooting practice range.

 In the beginning, the theater featured shows that rotated silent movies with vaudeville and novelty acts.  It was strictly a movie theater by the time it closed in 1958.   The club sold the building in 1968.

 In between its beginnings and its closing, the theater's history included being bombed during a 1930 projectionist strike.  But the damage was swept and cleaned up in time for the next show, Hauk said.

 During its vaudeville days, he said, it was part of the Orpheum circuit whose founder Martin Beck had discovered Houdini, Eddie Foy and the Marx Brothers.  The company became "Radio-Keith-Orpheum" (RKO), the studio famous for films such as "King Kong" and "Citizens Kane", after Beck merged with Benjamin Franklyn Keith in 1927.
The New Bedford Orpheum is the country's second oldest Orpheum theater; the oldest that is still operating was built in Los Angeles in 1911 and is now called the "Palace Theatre"

  The theater's final manager, G. Albert Roy, told Hauk that famed sportscaster Curt Gowdy and famed Red Sox slugger Ted Williams visited the theater and said they were the most comfortable theater seats they had ever sat in.   Roy also boasted having the best motion picture screen quality, because the projector was closer to the screen than with other theaters.  

 The building had been vacant for 50 years, except for ground-floor markets and office rentals on the second floor, when 20 local volunteers toured the interior in 2002.

 By then, dust covered most of the interior, floors boards were buckling and paint and plaster were peeling, dulling the once majestic theater's colors and designs.  The group vowed to find a way to revitalize the property and incorporated as a non-profit as part of that effort.

  Hauk said what's unique about the Orpheum structurally is that unlike other theaters it wasn't modernized as the age of vaudeville became the age of motion pictures.  "It isn't full of Formica and aluminum," he said.

 The group's mission, as stated on its web site, is to preserve, restore, protect and adapt the building and theater with the goal of creating and operating a multi-cultural arts facility.

 Hauk said the plan is to restore the theater as closely as possible to its original, opening day condition.  This work will be done in three stages.  The first phase will focus on the second floor theater lobby; the second phase will focus on the ballroom.  "The third phase will be to take on the theater," he said.

 The project's cost estimate is approximately $10 million.  The group, therefore, is currently focusing on outreach, an effort to find help with planning and funding the project.  As a good first step, the city's historic preservation group, WHALE, has helped ORPH Inc. applies to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places. 

  "If we can get listed (in the national register)," Hauk said, "we could be included in a federal stimulus package, which would stimulate the whole neighborhood and could be part of any re-alignment of Route 18."

 Much of the work to be done, he said, will be performed by volunteers, the only exception being what must be done by trade professionals.

  The ultimate plan, Hauk said, is not to compete with the city's other revitalized theater and community art center, the Zieterion.  The Orpheum would focus on hosting community theater and local art groups, perhaps even the UMass Dartmouth Center for the Performing Arts.

 "Whatever we can do to make it an active and vital arts center," he said.

 Anyone interested in volunteering their time on the project or make a donation should contact O.R.P.H., Inc. c/o,
Charles Hauck, Pres., 46 South Sixth St., New Bedford, MA 02740

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