Mon, May 12 2008
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Published April 27, 2008 09:01 pm - MIAMI, Okla. — Nearly eight decades later, a dream of George Coleman Sr. to finish the upstairs of the Coleman Theatre in downtown Miami for use as a ballroom just might be realized. Group hopes to raise $800,000 to complete Coleman ballroom By Debbie Robinson news@joplinglobe.com MIAMI, Okla. — Nearly eight decades later, a dream of George Coleman Sr. to finish the upstairs of the Coleman Theatre in downtown Miami for use as a ballroom just might be realized. The nonprofit organization Friends of the Coleman will launch a fund-raising effort next month to raise about $800,000 to complete the restoration, said Barbara Smith, theater director. The organization already has a $500,000 state grant that has been matched by private donations, she said. The 6,000 square feet of upstairs space will feature seating for 500 for receptions or convention meetings, or can be partitioned to allow three smaller groups at any one time to meet, Smith said. New restrooms and a kitchen also are included in the design. The project also will include an addition on the north side of the theater that will include an entrance, elevator, history area and lobby. “It’s just going to bring the whole place alive,” Smith said. The project will complete the original concept favored by Coleman, she said. The upstairs space never was completed by Coleman because of his generosity to the local Masons, who needed a meeting space. During the group’s 20 years of meeting in the theater, Coleman died and the project was abandoned. “It’s been empty for 50 years,” Smith said. Oklahoma artist Charles Banks Wilson painted murals in the vacant upstairs that now are displayed in the rotunda of the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, she said. The Coleman Theatre, originally a movie theater and vaudeville house, opened April 18, 1929, with a full house. Coleman, who made his money in mining, designed the interior in the style of Louis XV, with opulent carpets and chandeliers. The theater was given to the city of Miami in 1989 by the Coleman family, and has been the site of performances including theater, silent movies and concerts. The new restoration project will incorporate the original design, with chandeliers and silk panels. 
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