End of the line for the Hilliard Theater?

[Michael Loje]

Drove by the Hilliard over the weekend and saw Bob emptying out some of his stuff. I feel sorry for the guy. There are a lot misconceptions about the him, many that I have read on these pages. For instance:

He's an absentee landlord who refuses to put money into the building.

Fact: He's a guy with limited means who bought the building to keep it from being torn down. He, like all property owners, pays property taxes on the building(five figures). Whatever money he has left over, he put in for repairs to keep it from deteriorating further.

Under his watch, the roof of the building "fell in"

Fact: The roof was shot when he bought the place 16 years ago. As a result, one of the first things Bob did was to remove the carpeting, which by that time had mushrooms growing on them. In fact, after a rain, a fog would develop in the place, and with the mushroom covered carpeting, it was like a scene from "Alice in Wonderland". Bob did his best to patch the roof himself.

Anyway, time is running short. Anyone who has any ideas, come forward soon. The building now is in grave danger of demolition. Losing this beautiful building would be a great loss, especially since it would come down just to create an empty lot. Any adaptive reuse would be great. Even though it was built as a movie/live performance theater, the beauty if it's interior is well suited to other uses. THINK HARD