A second-floor portion of the Christian County Courthouse Annex building that connects to the Alhambra Theatre has been renovated and spruced up to make permanent offices for the Pennyroyal Arts Council (PAC).
(Photos by Jennifer P. Brown)
The space, about 2,500 square feet, had been vacant for several years. It includes four offices and a new kitchen that open from a wide hallway.
“I can’t tell you how nice it is to be able to find my files again,” Margaret Prim, executive director of PAC, said recently as she walked through the renovated space.
The arts council was forced out of its longtime headquarters in the old L&N Train Depot by a fire on Jan. 15, 2019. For more than a year, the employees worked from one small office and at dining tables in The Hall that was created with the theater’s 2018 renovation.
The day of the depot fire, as firefighters investigated the source of smoke that smoldered up from below the floors, PAC employees and others hauled out files, artwork, computers and furnishings. (The city owns the depot building, and city council has not yet determined how, or if, the historic building will be repaired. The building was becoming structurally unsounded even before the fire.)
All of the furniture in the new arts council offices was pulled out of the depot or recently donated. Much of it was painted and reupholstered, said Prim.
The walls were painted a cream color, and black ceiling tiles were installed. The hallway has a black-and-white tile pattern, and the offices have new carpeting.
Some of the lighting fixtures were salvaged from the theater space during its renovation.
Artwork on the hallway walls includes photographs of the dioramas made for the Big Read featuring “Station Eleven” in 2017. There’s also a large print of the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain. It was a recent gift from a relative of Frances Payne — formerly of Hopkinsville and a friend of Prim’s family — whose funeral was several weeks ago.
Ben Frazier, who also worked on the theater renovation, was the general contractor for the office rehab.
The budget for the project was $60,000. The arts council is responsible for one-third of the cost, and the county, which owns the property, covered one-third. The remainder will come from a city grant for downtown improvement projects, said Prim.
A new security system for the theater is incorporated into the offices. The PAC staff has a screen to monitor live video from cameras positioned in the lobby and outdoors on Weber Street (behind the theater), Main Street and the alley between the theater and the courthouse.
The arts council has five part-time employees and two full-timers — Prim and Assistant Executive Director Becky Green.
PAC manages the Alhambra for the county.
(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
