By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
An effort to resurrect a prominent building on the downtown Albany Courthouse Square is off to a strong start, though there is much work ahead.
Albany Economic Development Director, Mackenzie Manring, says efforts to restore the Rigney Theater began in earnest in 2020.
“I mean this is a 111-year-old theater that is a main focal point of our downtown other than our courthouse,” Manring says. “If you’ve been to Albany, you know the courthouse, you know the theater, you know the library. Those are the historic buildings around our downtown. And the theater had sat vacant since 2013.”
Restoration of the Rigney began in earnest in 2020 as individual donors provided enough money to repair the roof. Cleanup of the interior began the following year. Two foundations issued $50,000 matching grant challenges each. Albany residents were up for it. They matched both, totaling $200,000 toward restoration of the Rigney. That money is being used to secure the outside structure of the building going toward tuck pointing to stabilize the brick, securing windows and doors to keep water and wildlife out.
One theme has threaded through this process that the Rigney is just too prominent and too historic for Albany to lose.
“It was built in 1914 by a local judge. He thought Albany should have an opera house. And so, he made that happen,” Manring says. “He built it for $20,000. So, that’s the equivalent now of around $600,000. And if you think about building a structure like that you likely couldn’t do it for that amount. At the time, that was a lot of money.”
As it sat vacant and began to deteriorate, Albany residents decided to act.
“And we just thought you know we’ve got to do something,” Manring says. “We’ve lost several of our older brick buildings around our square and this one was just too prominent to lose.”
Manring says supporters understand that even with all that has been raised and all that is being done, full restoration of the Rigney will take even more.
“There’s a lot to do, but we don’t have to do it all at once,” Manring says. “And there are probably things we can do piece by piece to get to a point where it’s usable and then work on all those finishing touches as we go,”
Albany has been working with the Community Foundation of Northwest Missouri in St. Joseph on the restoration project.
Albany hopes to restore the Rigney as a home for the Albany school district fine arts program, to host entertainment for the community and region, and to provide a central meeting place.
Click HERE to read more about the project.
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