KILGORE, Texas — One East Texas nonprofit is looking to help return downtown Kilgore to the burgeoning film scene that it was back in the 1930s and 40s.
The Texan Theater, located at 201 S Kilgore St., was first built in 1931 and has been a staple of Kilgore for almost a century, along with Crim Theater just across the street.
A revitalization of the space has been in the works for seven years but finally, the Kilgore City Council is reviewing the final design for the Texan’s restoration and new additions.
"There has not been one event that we’ve had in here that I haven’t had someone tell me that whenever they were a kid they came in here and watched a movie for either 10 cents, or a nickel, or whatever the cost was in the 50s, 60s, and 70s to watch a film," Reel East Texas Film Festival Executive Director Chip Hale said.
It’s a project that’s come together largely thanks to the people at Reel East Texas and their determination to see the Texan revamped.
"So one of the things that we were able to do was bring a private donor in, along with the city and two nonprofits, the Kilgore Historical Preservation Foundation as well as Reel East Texas," Reel East Texas President Kate Yglesias said.
The Texan Theater has meant so much to the community of Kilgore, and there’s a lot of excitement right now that those fond memories are going to translate to more good memories going forward.
"The revitalization of this building has everything to do with revitalizing Kilgore and bringing more people into the area. The Texan is such a beautiful marker, and when you drive by it you kinda want to go inside," Yglesias said.
Thanks to folks like Hale and Yglesias, the Texan has once again become a space the public can enjoy. There’s still more work to be done, and the people of Kilgore will soon enjoy the Texan with its new facelift sooner rather than later.
"The timeline moving forward is about three months for final design, two months for bidding, and then probably a 6 to 18 month project for completion depending on how hard we work to keep the rest of the facility open under construction," Kilgore City Manager Josh Selleck said.