Memories

Remembering the Alamo: It’s Been a Fast 10 Years

Some of the mainstays of Main Street—George MacLeod of MacLeod’s Restaurant, and Richard Rosen of Rosen’s Department Store—were disappointed when they didn’t land the old Alamo Theatre at a foreclosure auction 10 years ago.

That was in June 1992, and the ones with the winning bid, all of $37,500, soon became Main Street stalwarts, too.

Nobody at the time knew Karan Sheldon and David Weiss, the eventual winning bidders who had driven in from Blue Hill. But today the husband and wife are model business owners, as dedicated to the revitalization of Bucksport’s downtown as MacLeod and Rosen have been. And the Alamo is one of Main Street’s anchors.

Now, Northeast Historic Film, the organization associated with the Alamo, is poised for expansion. A party, open to the public, on Thursday, June 13, will mark 10 years since the Alamo’s renewal. Sheldon and Weiss also will oversee the groundbreaking of a $1.5 million, three-story, climate-controlled Conservation Center for Northeast Historic Film’s vast archives.

The party takes place at 5 p.m. Among those involved are both Richard Rosen, now the Alamo’s board president, and George MacLeod, whose MacLeod’s Restaurant is donating refreshments.

 “Although we didn’t know who these two men (MacLeod and Rosen) were 10 years ago when they bid against us, they really represented the strength of Main Street,” Sheldon said. “They were really concerned about what would happen.”

The Alamo had closed as a movie theater in 1956. The building later housed a grocery store, a health center, a community center, a restaurant and a video rental shop before being abandoned.

Sheldon remembers that auction vividly.

“None of the bidders really had any access to the building, because the bank had it boarded up for a few years,” she said. “They gave us one hour to go through it with flashlights. We brought along all the contractors we knew.”

They had learned about the Alamo’s availability after compiling an inventory of all motion picture theaters around Maine. There were more than 600 of them, and Sheldon and Weiss figured that one of them would eventually serve as the physical facility for Northeast Historic Film.

Sheldon and Weiss didn’t have the money themselves to enter the bidding, so they contacted members of Northeast Historic Film. Eighty-five donors put up the money that allowed them to even enter the bidding.

Sheldon and Weiss got a building with, at the least, a heritage. There used to be many Alamo Theatres across the country, a name borrowed from popular western films. All of the other Alamo Theatres have fallen away, Sheldon said, and Bucksport’s Alamo remains the only standing, operating theater of that vintage.

They also landed what Sheldon calls “a disgusting mess.” With water in the basement, fuzzy mold was plentiful. Floors were collapsing and the plumbing was smashed, she said.

Phil Yates as building manager was the Alamo’s original hire, and remains today as one of Northeast Historic Film’s nine employees. He brought the building back to code and made it comfortable for customers.

“We opened right away and people tolerated our renovation,” Sheldon said. “They always said they remembered how there had been movies at the Alamo before.

“From the start we put up a portable screen, even though the rest was awful. We had potluck suppers and showed movies. We always made room for the movies.”

 They put in 125 seats, which they got for $2 apiece from a closed cinema in Caribou. Soon, as part of the Alamo’s 10-year upgrade, those seats will be replaced.

More than 15,000 people attended events at the Alamo last year, and for more than movies. Traditions in the auditorium now include a silent film festival each July, a two-day scholarly symposium and live music, including classical offerings by the Arcady Music Festival.