New life for an old building

Fountain Green Theatre and Dance Hall:

early history and store:

• built in 1918 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• the LDS Church sold property in 1944 to Ivin Rasmussen
• Rasmussen kept operating the theater and dance hall until 1950, “when television changed the way people spent their evenings”
• Rasmussen turned the dance hall into a general store
• Rasmussen would give each customer a little white mint from a big candy jar on the counter
• store closed in 1976

theater:

• was boarded up after closing in 1950
• had an orchestra pit, where a pianist played for silent movies
• heated by potbellied stoves along the walls of the room
• showed silent movies, then talkies
• curtain had ads for banks and mills and furniture stores

restoration:

• Fountain Green Heritage Committee suggested restoring the old dance hall/theater in 1998
• 300 people, nearly half the population of the area, volunteered on the project
• dance hall received one of nine annual Heritage Awards for preservation, awarded by the Utah Heritage Foundation in November 2004
• Heritage Committee president Russ Evans approached Rasmussen's descendants in 1998 about donating the property to the city
• Heritage Committee wanted to restore the theater for plays and movies, and the dance hall for receptions, reunions, and dances
• volunteers piled up the rotted wood from the floor and ceiling and started a bonfire
• volunteers used a high-pressure hose on the walls and discovered the original green-and-red stencil design 14 feet above the floor
• Denice Aagard overcame her fear of heights to repaint the stencil design

• estimated annual operating cost for the entire building is $13,400
• dance hall rents for $200 per reception
• plan to borrow movies from the Brigham Young University film library for little or no cost
• the dance hall has been busy every weekend since opening, with family reunions and at least a dozen wedding receptions