The show will go on
at the Devon

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

A lot of people seem to think the Devon theater restoration project is a short film. But it’s really more like a double feature.
Mayfair Community Development Corporation officials insist that a little patience will prove very rewarding for neighbors once the project’s funding is in place and the CDC can pull the trigger on its grand plans for a new performing-arts center.
"I guess my message is to anyone who’s interested is there are groups who would take twenty years to do this," said Reese Hartey, the Mayfair CDC chairman.
By contrast, the CDC is less than three years into its effort to rehab the 1940s-era, single-screen movie house into a 600-seat live arts venue capable of hosting professional stage productions, community theater, live bands, local festivals, business gatherings, neighborhood meetings and movie showings.
The theater is at Frankford Avenue and Stirling Street. The CDC plans to manage the new arts center there.
The community group has spent about $1.6 million on the project so far, including $800,000 to buy the theater and six adjoining storefronts and the rest to gut the place and rehab the heating, air-conditioning, plumbing and electrical.
Built in 1946, the theater became a landmark during the development of Mayfair in the baby-boomer era. After decades, however, it fell on hard times and became an adult theater, earning it the nickname "Dirty Devon."
The community eventually ran the skin flicks out of the venue, which became a second-run house, showing weeks-old feature films at cut-rate prices.
In the 1990s, the venue closed for a while, then reopened under new management determined to make the second-run format a success. But crowds were small and the nostalgic entrepreneur lost his shirt. The Devon became a vault filled with old theater equipment and used bubble gum.
"You could imagine the stuff they left here," said Brian King, executive director of the CDC. "They just got up one day and said, ‘We’re not doing one-dollar and two-dollar movies anymore.’ "
Even the projection equipment was "beaten up, broken up and busted up," King said.
"We did find a few funny things, like the old red (ushers’) coats," Hartey said.
The "cosmetic" portion of their plans will cost another $2.4 million. The CDC is already halfway toward that fund-raising goal.
That does not include a separate $50,000 grant from Drexel University that enabled the CDC to install new "DEVON" marquees outside the theater last year.
"Once we get all of the funding we need, we’re six months away from having a theater," Hartey said.
The project has a general contractor and detailed architectural plans. The CDC has selected all of the facades, tiles, rugs and fixtures for the art-deco style interior.
"The only things we’re going to keep are the two sconces on the sides. They’re original," Hartey said.
Hartey and King have been trying to forge alliances with performing-arts groups downtown to bring shows up to the Northeast when the time is right.
"We’ve met with a lot of theater groups in town. With a lot of shows they get, they have no problem coming up here and doing a few shows," Hartey said.
"We’re trying to set it up so it’s flexible in here with an emphasis on the arts."
The main thing they’re asking from the community now is a little flexibility on its expectations, as well as any extra cash it might have lying around.
The CDC leaders end up fielding questions about the Devon almost everywhere they go, including their organization’s own meetings, civic meetings, church gatherings and barbecues.
That prompted Hartey to draft an "open letter" to area residents recently to apprise them of progress.
"We’re getting a lot of questions," Hartey said. "So I wanted to put out something that people could read. Don’t give up on us."
The six adjoining storefronts also remain as empty "vanilla shells," which may also give the appearance that things have stalled. But the CDC doesn’t want to sign any leases until the theater reopens. Theater traffic will be a selling point to prospective commercial tenants.
"What I don’t want to do is have a disappointed tenant," Hartey said.
The CDC’s track record on other projects should build local confidence that the Devon will get done sooner than later, its leaders say.
Founded in 2000, the CDC has fixed and sold 26 homes, rehabbed the former Manor Bar into the Manor Medical and Community Service Building, developed the John Perzel Community Center and rehabbed Schaaf’s Market.
The CDC also operates six sidewalk-cleaning machines for the avenue.
In conjunction with the Devon project, the CDC has enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz to get federal funding for a Frankford Avenue improvement project. The goal is to beautify and make it safer for pedestrians, with faux redbrick crosswalks and strategic tree plantings.
"We have a proven track record of redevelopment in the neighborhood," King said.
For Mayfair CDC information, e-mail mayfaircdc2@verizon.net or call 215-332-4414. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com