Our "New" Home

On Thursday, January 4, 2007, South Bend Civic Theatre dedicated its new facility at the corner of Madison and Main in downtown South Bend with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception.

The event celebrated the completion of a twelve-month, $3.9 million renovation and adaptation of the former Scottish Rite Building, an historic downtown landmark located two blocks south of Memorial Hospital and two blocks north of the Morris Performing Arts Center, creating one of the premier community theatre facilities in the country.

Originally constructed in 1916 as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, the building is distinguished by its classic Greek columns and solid limestone exterior. Inside is a marble-ornamented main lobby (which Civic has designated the 1st Source Bank Main Lobby), a spectacular windowed dome over what is the theatre’s Marjorie H. & James M. Wilson Auditorium, a second, upper lobby off the main auditorium, designated the Martha Jane Fields Lobby, and a spacious, lower-level, former social hall of the church that has been re-designed as the Barbara K. Warner Studio Theatre.

The project also included construction of a $500,000, two-story scene-shop addition to the back of the building, designated as the Roland W. Goheen Technical Wing, which features direct access via freight elevator to the main stage.

South Bend’s Architectural Design Group (ADG, Inc.) was the project’s architect. Majority Builders, Inc., served as general contractor for the renovation and adaptation. Jerit-Boys, Inc., of Chicago was employed by SBCT as a design consultant for the project. Stan Roller & Associates of Naperville, Illinois, served as acoustic consultants for design of the main auditorium. And SBCT board members Jim Larkin, Dick Currey, John Phair, Ron Cohen, Kevin Dreyer, Mark Abram-Copenhaver, and Phil Patnaude made up the theatre’s building committee.

Major contributors to the project included Marjorie H. & James M. Wilson, Barbara K. Warner, the Roland W. Goheen Foundation, the John, Anna and Martha Jane Fields Foundation, 1st Source Foundation, the Florence V. Carroll Foundation, the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, SBCT’s board of directors, and the city of South Bend, all of whom contributed $100,000 or more. In all, over 300 donors helped SBCT realize its dream of a first-class theatre facility to serve the Michiana region. With a final anonymous donation in November of 2009, the mortgage for the building was completed, giving SBCT a permanent - and debt-free - home.