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Located at its present day
spot, the Dreamland Theater opened in
1910. In 1917, the Dreamland changed
its name to the Liberty. Fire burned
the building in 1919 and the theater
reopened in 1921. During the 1930s,
the Liberty brought "talkies"
to Dayton.
1955
Different managers ran the Liberty until
it closed its doors during the late
1960s and, finally, in the early 1970s.
For almost 30 years the building was
mainly unused except for storage or
the occasional Halloween haunted house.
Early '90s
During the 1980s, while people were
talking about the revitalization of
downtown Dayton, dreams of restoring
the Liberty Theater were put onto many
peoples wish lists. Finally, in 1994,
a group of citizens under the title
Touchet Valley Arts Council (TVAC) approached
the owner of the building, the law firm
of Nealey and Marinella, about restoring the building.
Under one condition, Terry Nealey and
Scott Marinella told the group they
could have the building minus the balcony
area, which would be used as office
space for the law offices. That condition
was that the leaky roof be repaired
first. Through local donations and hundreds
of volunteer hours by community members,
the roof was repaired. Nealey and Marinella
followed through with their promise
plus they added the use of the balcony.
TVAC now began the journey of the restoration
of the Liberty Theater. Over the next
seven years, TVAC and other community
members raised money and were awarded
different grants that allowed the Liberty
Theater to open its doors with the live
performance of The Music Man in November
of 2001.
Today
the Liberty Theater serves Dayton and
the Touchet Valley under the vision
of the original goal. First run family
oriented movies are shown at the theater
four days a week with the Fourth Friday
Foreign Film being one of the few foreign
film venues in Southeast Washington.
Live performances produced by TVAC Productions
and the Missoula Childrens Theater graced
the stage during the first year and
will continue on in the following years.
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1946
The Music Man
November 2001
Oklahoma!
November 2002
Broadway Revue
March 2003
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