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Midland Theatre 36 N. Park Place, Newark, OH

dslentz writes on June 25, 2011 at 10:27 pm

The Midland was falling apart in the late 1990’s. The Longaberger Company (owned by Tami Longaberger) purchased it (along with the Soldiers & Sailors Theater which was across the street to the right of the Midland) and began the very expensive process of restoring the Midland (the S&S theater was beyond repair and demolished).

I worked for Longaberger as their A/V Manager. The company made baskets (nearly $1B worth of hand-made baskets prior to 9/11) and contributed a lot to the community.

In about the year 2000, the company returned to restoring the Midland. Very skills craftsmen cast molds of the beautiful plaster-work and started repairing everything. Water from the leaking roof had caused extensive damage to the beautiful interior. A former Navy Seabee.. Jim May (Seabees build things quickly for the military during war) was in charge the project. Every stitch of electric was replaced, the roof, stage, orchestra pit, seats fully re-cast and restored, projection booth, balcony, lobby, dressing rooms… you name it, they restored it. There was nothing about the restoration that was done “on the cheap”. They added state-of-the-art stage lighting and sound systems so the theater could be used for stage productions again.

To the left of the stage is three floors of dressing rooms. They restored all this including making everything ADA compliant. Under the stage was an additional dressing room, plus access to the orchestra pit.

After nearly $1M worth of work, The Longaberger Company donated the theater to the city of Newark, Ohio.

It’s an incredibly beautiful “gem” of a restored theater. On a side note, out in front of the theater is a bronze case of Mark Twain sitting on a park bench.

The credit for that theater all belongs to Tami Longaberger for her civic pride and caring about her community.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -