Owners hoping to put life in the theater

History nonprofit joins 22-year bid to save the Everett

Inside the dusty old Everett Theater in Hyde Park, it's hard to see signs of grandeur: Pieces of the old ceiling lie in piles on the floor, the gold curtains are rotted, paint is peeling off the walls.

But Donald Hussey and Pat Tierney can see beyond the dust and debris inside this former vaudeville house. They envision something majestic on Fairmount Avenue: a grand stage, live performances, 500 people filling the seats - all spilling into the neighborhood's downtown, breathing new life into a community that so badly needs it.

For more than two decades the owners - Tierney, Hussey, and their two business partners Jacqueline Stanton and Dorothy White - have struggled to make their dream of restoring the Everett into reality. But despite their efforts - they've rallied volunteers, held meat raffles, even summoned a "ghostologist" to check for demons - the restoration has never really gotten off the ground because of lack of funds and waning community interest.

"We've never had people that believed in it as much as we did," said Tierney, who said the Everett will need about $7 million to restore.

The owners got a glimmer of hope recently when Historic Boston Inc., a nonprofit that works to preserve endangered historic sites in the city, picked the old vaudeville theater as a neighborhood building it wants to see fixed up.

"What happens is you generate a lot of excitement, but then you have to look at the hard facts," Tierney said. "With Historic Boston on our side, we have more than an edge."

Historic Boston's move comes amid fresh momentum from the neighborhood's burgeoning arts community, which wants to wrest Hyde Park from the shadows of its more popular neighbors of Roslindale and Jamaica Plain, with their trendy restaurants and thumping night life.

Of the three, only Hyde Park has what could be its own historic theater district, with the French's Opera House, doors down from the Everett. Historic Boston is also looking at French's, which houses Riverside Theatre Works, a performing arts center that offers a host of youth classes and professional programs.

"Where else are you going to find a mini-downtown theater district," said Melissa Williams, director of Riverside Theater Works, which has offered to buy to the building it has been renting for 20 years to expand its facilities, classes, and programs. "The artists' community is thinking 'let's secure these spaces,' " she said.

"We have a lot of support from the city and Hyde Park residents," Williams added. "We feel we can be a really strong presence to generate the creative economic stimulus here."

The Everett is sandwiched among shops and diners in the center of Logan Square, a door away from Tierney and Stanton's real estate firm, Stanton & Tierney, and doors down from Hussey and White's diner Dottie's, open for more than 30 years.

Hussey and Tierney say fixing up the old theater would be a boon for the community.

"Everybody who comes in here says this to me, 'Donny, do you know what this would do for the neighborhood?' " said Hussey, 75, sitting in his restaurant recently. "It's a beautiful project. It's a challenge and love."

Established in the 1900s, the Everett began as a vaudeville theater until the 1930s. Milton Berle is said to have performed there, his signature etched on a wall behind the stage. In the decades later, the Everett became a movie house, emerging as the New Pixie Cinema in the 1970s and an auction house in the 1980s.

Tierney and the other owners bought the building in 1986. When they first stepped inside, the ceiling was leaking, causing major interior damage. But Tierney and Hussey knew they had a gem.

"I used to come in with an umbrella," Hussey said. "I put the lights on and said, 'Oh, geesh, this should be a theater. It has to be a theater.' "

Much of the cleanup effort came from volunteers. Tierney's husband secured a loan to repair the leaky roof. Hussey, his son, and son-in-law spent a year clearing out the old seats. A local construction company donated dumpsters, and another helped with the clearing of debris.

In the 1990s, Hussey established Showtime Restoration Volunteers, soliciting the aid of trade professionals to lend their services. But interest waned.

In 1997, the owners got a $50,000 grant from the city for a feasibility and marketing study. Beyond the study, they could couldn't do much else.

"We ran into many dead ends," Tierney said.

But the two aren't giving up. In the next month, Historic Boston, which has reviewed a previous feasibility study on the theater, is also assembling a development team to inspect the building and will conduct a financial review on such things as the restoration cost as well as whether there is a market for the space, said Jeff Gonyeau, senior program manager for historic neighborhood centers at Historic Boston.

"It's such a compelling space," said Gonyeau, "and there is such enthusiasm for putting the theater together. We are going to look at it carefully to see how we can make it happen."