Breathing New Life into Oregon’s Grand Old Theaters — and Their Communities

Historic theaters like the Holly in Medford, reopening in early 2025 after four decades, and Athena’s Gem in Eastern Oregon are more than arts venues or gathering spots. They’re part of the history that defines us. Thanks to OCF donors, they’ll be part of our future, too. Discover them here.

When it reopens early this year, the restored Holly Theatre is expected to draw world-class live music concerts, pump millions of dollars into the Southern Oregon economy and revitalize a dormant stretch of downtown Medford. But the venue’s value can already be counted in how much of themselves the people of the Rogue Valley have poured into bringing it back to life: 

• 14 years of planning and fundraising 
• 70 active volunteers, year after year
• Dozens of Southern Oregon builders, contractors and artisans
• 3,300 donors, mostly individual community members
• 1,008 auditorium seats, each tagged with the name of the person who sponsored it
• $13 million raised

Holly Theatre, Medford

Inside the Holly’s rebuilt walls are coins inserted by Medford construction workers. Beneath the ceiling’s new paint are the signatures of the Grants Pass painters who made it shimmer.  

“So many people are very much attached and feel very much a part of the whole project. They want something of themselves left in there,” says Karen Doolen, one of three volunteers who co-chaired the fundraising with fellow Rogue Valley residents John Snider and Ron McUne.

With support from Oregon Community Foundation donors, similar stories are unfolding all over Oregon, from Athena to Astoria, as communities painstakingly restore and repurpose old theaters that embody their shared history and spark the promise of a vibrant future.

Athena, northeast of Pendleton, is home to barely 1,200 residents. Yet when the morning arrived to install new flooring at Athena’s Gem, a 1901 theater on Main Street, 50 of them showed up to help contractors get it done.

“It was like a barn raising—we had people bringing in food, and everybody was split up into crews. We put the whole floor system in, including floor joists and subfloor, in one day,” recalls Rob McIntyre, the now-retired high school band director who has shepherded The Gem’s restoration for two decades.

"The amount of energy and time that Oregonians put into theater restorations shows that they value places that define their community’s culture and history,” says Lisa Mensah, OCF President and CEO. “It’s such a joy for OCF to be part of them.”

An escape and a touchstone

With its bold marquee and opulent Venetian-themed decor, the Holly offered Rogue Valley residents a glittery escape from the grimness of the Great Depression when it opened in August 1930. One of the grandest of the era’s grand movie palaces, it was the only theater in the region equipped to screen “talking pictures,” introduced a few years earlier.

For the next 50-plus years, the Holly was the scene of countless first jobs, first dates and first-run movies—a touchstone for multiple generations. Older residents recall their parents’ stories of working as movie ushers in the 1940s or seeing Charlton Heston in “The Ten Commandments” (1956). Their kids and grandkids grew up in the Holly, watching “Mary Poppins” (1964) and “Jaws” (1975) and lining up for hours to catch “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” (1983).

In 1986, the Holly shut down as moviegoers nationwide abandoned single-screen theaters for multiplexes. Another quarter-century passed before the JPR Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports Jefferson Public Radio, bought the building, which by then had been condemned.

One of the first grants the Holly received, for $60,000, came from OCF.

“We were thrilled when we got the OCF grant in the beginning because it was kind of like getting The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. It really gave some validation to the project in our mind, and we're very grateful for that,” Doolen says.

Oregon Community Foundation and its donors have also supported historic theaters in Astoria (The Liberty), North Bend (Little Theatre on the Bay), Pendleton (The Rivoli) and other communities. In 2024, the Ragland Theater in Klamath Falls received a $100,000 grant from OCF’s Arts and Culture Rebuilding Fund, which was created after the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen arts and culture groups statewide.

Revitalizing Downtown Medford

To return the Holly to its original grandeur ultimately required close to $13 million, of which OCF donors pitched in more than $120,000. All that money, work and time will soon come to fruition, when the Holly re-opens as the largest indoor performance venue between Eugene and Redding, California.

Inside, countless historically accurate features are meant to evoke in visitors the feeling of floating along a Venice canal—from the wavy teal pattern in the carpet, to the swirling designs on the walls, to the tall, window-shaped niches that line the auditorium, hung with drapes and lit from behind.

Outside, at the corner of Holly and Sixth streets in downtown Medford, the scene is comparatively desolate. But boosters like Mike Naumes anticipate the area won't stay that way for long: As many as 1,000 locals and tourists are expected to attend roughly 100 live music concerts, cultural events and community gatherings at the Holly each year.

“I think it’s a really important piece for the revitalization of downtown. It’s going to encourage restaurants and hotels and shops to develop, and it’s going to bring a lot of people in from out of town, because the performing arts are going to be world-class,” says Naumes, an agribusiness owner and pear grower whose family foundation donated to the restoration.

Based on results from the Holly’s sister Cascade Theatre in Redding and economic impact studies of other historic theater projects, supporters anticipate the Holly will contribute at least $3 million to the local economy through new businesses, jobs and hotel stays.  

“I got involved because I thought it would be really great for Medford and do what we need done in terms of economic development,” says Doolen, a longtime community fundraiser. “I've never worked on a historic project, and seeing it blossom and come back to what it was, it's just amazing. It's just bringing people together in such a beautiful way.”

Athena’s Teens Help Save Their Gem

In Athena, The Gem closed in 1968. It was still boarded up when McIntyre moved to town in 2005 to interview with the Athena-Weston School District. He knew he wanted both: the band director job and the chance to restore the Gem.

Twenty years later, the $2.1 million project is $150,000 shy of completion—the cost of the final screen and lighting components.

“If I can just have the money, it’ll be done in a week,” McIntyre says.

Gem Theatre Auditorium

That this tiny town is so close to opening a 200-seat performing arts space is testament to more than 400 volunteers who have spent a combined 50,000 hours restoring it. At least half of those hours came from teenagers, mostly McIntyre’s band students and others from the local middle and high schools.

“The kids were the key to everything,” he says, "especially the drywalling."

Over an arduous stretch of months interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, dozens of local students assembled in work crews on each floor of the three-story building. With help and supervision from adult volunteers, the teens hoisted and dragged 924 sheets of drywall into place.

More recently, as construction wrapped up, “I had the children of some of the original volunteers starting to help,” McIntyre recalls. “And—this kind of chokes me up a little bit—the kids would go around with their parents, and their parents would show them what they worked on when they were in school.”

OCF, Meyer Memorial Trust and many other funders and private donors have supported The Gem, which is already hosting school and community events. One of the first was a retirement party for the local state Senator, Bill Hansell. One day, McIntyre envisions The Gem as part of a Northeast Oregon circuit of historic theaters-turned-arts-venues, with The OK in Enterprise, The Liberty in La Grande and The Baker Orpheum in Baker City.

“Our goal is to have, frankly, a world-class rural arts facility in Athena, Oregon. It's not going to be like anything else this side of the Cascades. It’s got a fly space. It's got an orchestra pit. We have a 1921 Wurlitzer pipe organ that's been restored by kids. We’ve got audio equipment that's state of the art. We can host all kinds of wonderful things here that this town, this area, has just never had access to,” he says.

“It’s a model for what other communities could do if they have the moxie to start it—and finish it.”

Supporting Oregon communities and the places that define them: what you can do

• Learn more about Oregon’s historic theaters: Holly Theatre (Medford), Athena’s Gem (Athena), Liberty Theatre (Astoria), Little Theatre on the Bay (North Bend), Rivoli Theater (Pendleton), Ross Ragland Theater (Klamath Falls), Baker Orpheum Theatre (Baker City), Hollywood Theatre (Portland), and the Egyptian Theatre (Coos Bay).
• Connect with your OCF donor relations officer to learn how you can support projects that preserve and restore community landmarks.
• If you’re not already an OCF donor, connect with a philanthropic advisor to explore options for giving.