NEWS

State Theatre digital sign sparks concerns

Patrick Anderson
panderson@argusleader.com

A digital sign above the historic State Theatre is already making a statement.

Some Sioux Falls residents like the addition – a long-awaited indication of progress on the downtown landmark. For others, it raises questions about the priorities of the group restoring the building, who have said they are remaining true to the State's history.

Sioux Falls resident Miranda Jamison points out the obvious.

“That is not historical,” Jamison said. “If they’re trying to do that, then they’re not going the right direction.”

Advocates for the State have spent years raising money and revitalizing the interior of the building, but until Wednesday, there was little outside evidence of work going on indoors.

For better or worse, the installation of a Daktronics digital billboard spurred interest in the project, causing speculation from Sioux Falls residents who wonder when the city will regain its long-lost downtown theater.

There’s still no deadline for an opening. The sign is a way for organizers with the nonprofit State Theatre Company to show they are making progress, board President John Swedeen said.

“This is palpable evidence,” Swedeen said. “All the plumbing, all the electrical, that’s a big deal. But you don’t see that.”

Swedeen’s organization has raised millions of dollars to spruce up the interior. He put up $25,000 of his own money to help pay the display's $52,000 cost. Local and federal governments have rules governing updates to historic buildings, but signage is typically exempt.

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Still, Swedeen brought the digital billboard to the city’s historic preservation board earlier this summer for good measure. His group cares about the history of the building, Swedeen said. Workers are painstakingly restoring the interior, trying to match the original artwork and design.

Interior upgrades have been "as true to the period as possible,"  Swedeen said.

The downtown theater premiered in 1926, but the old marquee is a different story. The pre-existing plastic board with movable letters wasn't added until 1947, and its departure opens up new opportunities.

A 1927 photo of the State Theater's original design, with the original marquee. The marquee was replaced in 1947, and was updated again this week with a digital billboard.

The city's Board of Historic Preservation signed off on Swedeen's proposal to bring the marquee into the 21st Century in a unanimous vote, allowing his group to ditch the plastic letters in favor of digital text.

"We feel this message board was a necessary change to communicate effectively," Swedeen said.

But Sioux Falls residents want more than an updated marquee. Work has dragged on for years, and some are concerned one of the first street-facing upgrades appears to ignore the historic nature of the building.

The previous marquee was still significant to the State Theater's history, even if it wasn't part of the original design, said Jim Mathis, owner of the downtown business ADwerks Inc.

“Tacking a digital billboard onto it is in no way in consort with what the feeling was in that old building,” Mathis said.

Sioux Falls resident Tim O’Shea doesn’t miss the old marquee, and thinks the digital display will get people’s attention. He misses the theater and is excited to see it re-open.

“It’s just part of the soul of the downtown area,” O’Shea said. “It just hasn’t been rejuvenated like so much of the other part of the downtown has, and it needs to be.”