The Tecumseh Theater: A Theater Reborn
By Jarrod Allen
SHAWNEE, Ohio — Dozens of people converged on an historic three-story building in Perry Co. evening to be part of the building’s legacy.
Tecumseh Theater, in downtown Shawnee, has spent decades in disrepair and, at one time, water was pouring in through the roof. Given the exhaustive efforts of community members, hired help and a local Perry Co. nonprofit, Creek Associates, the roof leaks no more and the building is being brought back to life.
John Winnenberg, Past President of Creek Associates, tells WHIZ News the occasion puts a bow on decades of his work. The first of many performances of a homespun show helps to mark the occasion.
“The premiere of our variety show. It’s going to happen here every month and it is called ‘Live from Creek’. Our creeks in this area are Creek and Creek. Creek is our imaginary village where we help tell our story in a somewhat fictitious way,” Winnenberg said.
According to Tecumseh Theater’s website, the building was constructed in 1907 and was considered a skyscraper at the time. The Improved Order of Men, one of many groups focused on men of the Little Cities of Black Diamonds, affixed their plaque on the facade just beneath the front ornamentation.
Little Cities of Black Diamonds is a regional name given to communities south of New Lexington and Crooksville and north of Athens which are credited for a coal boom in the early 20th century. Many historians and scholars say the region helped to foster economic development far beyond its borders. , the area is economically depressed, with many sizeable communities within its region lost to time, timber growth and tales of history.
Shawnee’s Tecumseh Theater auditorium was filled with seats for dozens of local and regional dignitaries, funders and business owners, as well as those whose time and sweat helped to return Tecumseh Theater to her former splendor.
Winnenberg hopes the theater’s evening opening will be a catalyst for an untold number of evenings of socializing, laughing and performances into the future.
He hopes for tourism.
“It’s a respectful type of tourism. We want more than heads in beds. We want people to come here and learn about history, the labor movement here, the return of the forests. We are surrounded by Ohio’s only national forest, the Wayne National Forest,” Winnenberg adds.
