By Jessica Duke, Contributions by Ben Petracco
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| http://www.sorgopera.org/ |
At Fort Thomas Matters, we strive to bring you breaking news,
keep you current on events and activities, and keep you informed on City
Council and our schools. Recently,
we’ve added to our mission and become an advocate for shopping local and
shopping small. With that in mind,
we’ve really tried to partner with our community business persons and
especially those who’ve partnered with us as this website has grown.
Since the beginning conforms of FTM, one of those people has been Ken
Bowman at Bowman’s Framing. Bowman’s
Framing is on North Fort Thomas Avenue in the central business district and has
been open since 1986.
Ken,
president and sole proprietor, provides framing for any custom project you may
need and have highlighted
Bowman’s Framing and their incredible work before. Ken,
though, recently reached out to me about a project he has become involved
in. Although it is located in
Middletown, OH (a community not too unlike the tight-knit Fort Thomas
community), the project is very interesting. It is the Sorg Opera House (http://sorgoperahouse.org/).
This
historical building was constructed in 1891 by the same designer who built
Music Hall in downtown Cincinnati.
Its ornate stage has seen performances from the Sousa Band, amongst
others. It also served as an early
movie theatre and in the 1980’s, returned to its live theatre hey-day. Unfortunately, it has had periods of
vacancy and has been vacant since 2011, coming a bit of a community eye sore.
Ken is involved in the Sorg Revitalization Group in an effort
to restore this facility to its prime.
There will be a concert held on September 12 in front of the Sorg where
it will be designated as a historic site.
They are looking for corporate sponsorship. So, if you’re a history buff, theatre buff, architecture
buff, or passionate about helping other local communities, I encourage you to
check out their website.
And remember Bowman’s Framing!
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| http://bowmanframing.com/ |
Two things should be taken away from this article: One—there is an amazing theater a state away
that is a historic masterpiece. It once
was the pulse of the nightlife in Middletown and it has the potential to get
back to its prime. People that are
passionate about this project wanted to get this message out to public, and
that is the second take-away. Two—Fort
Thomas Matters is a facilitator to bolster projects and events that our readers
are passionate about. If you are
involved or know about a local event that you want to shed some public light on
get the information to an FTM writer. We
are here for the city, and want to assist our faithful readers every way we
can.