Fundraising is underway to help finance demolition of three buildings in downtown Villisca. One of the buildings — the Rialoto Theater — has been a landmark in the southwest Iowa community.
“We really started out trying to restore the Rialto because a lot of people have some very fond memories about all the shows and activities that used to go on there, ” says Villisca City Councilman Tripp Narup, who is president of the Rialto Board, “but we quickly found out there’s not much holding that building up anymore.”
The Rialto was closed in 2017. Narup says it’s a miracle the theater has stood as long as it has.
“The building was never designed to be a theater,” he says. “It’s just a regular old mercantile building. In 1930, they scraped out all the insides and turned it into a theater. The back wall is two stories high…and there’s really no support for it in the middle of the wall.”
The price tag to just fix the theater’s structural issues was$850,000. The two buildings on either side of the theater are attached and are targeted for demolition as well. A second phase of the project calls for construction of a covered outdoor space for community activities like concerts, plays and the farmer’s market in Villisca.
“We already have a pretty robust farmers market, but right now if it rains, they’re hanging out under a tree,” Narup says, “so I think it’ll be a big improvement for them.”
The Iowa West Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to help finance demolition of the buildings, but the grant comes with a requirement that another $25,000 be raised locally for the tear down phase.
(By Ryan Matheny, KMA, Shenandoah)