Sept, 16, 2022

A $50,000 grant will help the historic State Theatre in downtown Sioux Falls focus on finishing renovations for its third floor.

The theater is the receipting of a Dorothy Day Davenport Grant Award from The Mary Chilton Daughters of the American Revolution Foundation.

“Dorothy Day Davenport was a woman of great vision and had a love of her hometown of Sioux Falls,” said Judy Goetz, Chapter Regent. “We are excited to be able to honor her legacy by supporting the State Theatre as it continues to be restored.”

The State Theatre is a nonprofit cinema at 316 S. Phillips Ave. that reopened to the public in December 2020, after nearly 30 years of being closed. Restoration of the main floor and infrastructure upgrades throughout the building are complete. Many areas of the building require additional construction, including the third floor.

“After years of research and feedback from the community a plan has been put in place to focus fundraising efforts to refurbish the third floor,” said Allison Weiland, executive director of the State Theatre.

The vision for the third floor is to provide a unique and central location for private events and corporate meetings. The space, which originally included an apartment, will be transformed into a “beautiful and unique rental area,” the theater said in a statement.

That ultimately could including a microcinema that could hold up to 30 seats and be used as private screenings as well as showings programmed by the state theater.

Renovations will include restoring the original terrazzo floor, plaster and ceiling repairs, electrical and heating and cooling needs. An elevator was installed in 2019 in anticipation of the reopening of the third floor.

“We are working with Architecture Incorporated and Journey Construction to get the final budget and plans confirmed and hope to start the utility and framework in the next few months,” Weiland said.

“The DAR Foundation’s investment will lay the framework for use of the third floor and continue our mission to further restore the interior and legacy of the State.”

Dorothy Day Davenport was an original founding member in 1915 of the local Mary Chilton Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a charitable organization established in 1890 to promote historic preservation, education, and patriotism. Members have an ancestral connection to men and women who had a patriotic role in the American Revolution.

The State Theater opened in 1926 and closed in 1990. Ownership was passed to the nonprofit State Theatre Company in 2005.

Joe Batcheller, president of the State Theatre Company, stated: “The Sioux Falls State Theatre Company is grateful for this generous grant from the Mary Chilton DAR Foundation. Their support will be a catalyst for refurbishing the third floor into a micro cinema, adding to the depth of programming that the State Theatre can offer the community. We couldn’t be more excited!”