It’s been months since a beloved Eastwood community staple in Syracuse entered into a state of disarray and rubble. A storm in June brought the Palace Theatre’s Stafford Avenue wall crumbling in.
“It’s horrible. I live right next door so to drive by every day, to be inside, I was in here when we first bought it patching the ceiling. And now to see it coming down is like, my heart’s falling out,” building owner Katrina Skinner explained to a motorist who inquired about the tarps and fencing where a solid wall used to stand on the theatre.
“Every day, I’m making calls on this trying to move this forward as much as possible,” said Skinner.
She operates several local businesses, and as such, hears a lot about what people have to say about the brick and tarp spotted just off James Street.
What You Need To Know
- The Palace Theatre in Syracuse’s Eastwood neighborhood saw extensive structural damage following a June storm this year
- A crumbling wall is causing neighbors to view the theatre as an eyesore, wondering when construction and repairs will return it to its previous state
- The theatre’s owner says the city of Syracuse and the pandemic has made some roadblocks for rebuilding, but she is working to make it happen before winter sets in
- The owner says she worries that severe winter weather will bring the building down for good if repairs don’t happen soon
“People are upset. They’re upset, they hate the eyesore and they think that — honestly, I don’t know what they think — but we hate the eyesore as much as they do,” she added. “Because of the steps that we have to take, we haven’t been able to do anything.”
And while this owner is rallying on several fronts to preserve the community image, what continues to happen in these three and a half walls keeps the drive alive.
“Dance recitals, plays, we host the theatre company and they’re always coming in, they built a sound table for us. They’ve done a lot for us. So we just want to work with a local community,” said Skinner.
It’s been miles of red tape trying to get approval and funds together to make the necessary fixes, says Skinner, all for this Eastwood legacy.
“Our goal has been to maintain that family-owned local feel. Maintain it, keep the seats, keep the beauty of what’s here, keep everything that they’ve done,” Skinner added.
The worst part, Skinner says, is before the storm and collapse, there were plans in motion to upgrade much of the building in good taste — including lift access to one of the biggest fundraising rooms, the banquet hall, which now can’t even open because the primary exit is along the tattered wall.
“We’d have this place double booked on weekends. We’d have things going on. So graduation parties, Christmas parties,” she said. “This is huge loss for us this season because the holiday parties would be double-booked every night for Christmas.”
In trying to fix and maintain The Palace, Skinner says it’s always about honoring the family heritages of the historic building and moving forward. Skinner and company will have to make the wall repair part of their legacy, and it’s a race between them and Mother Nature as snow and expanding ice could bring the whole thing down.
“The [Haggerty] family just really cared about this for a really, really long time. And we just want to continue that we want that we want the community to know that we love and care for this building,” said Skinner. “We want this place to be beautiful and active and full of people again.”
Skinner and The Palace have an optimistic look and tell Spectrum News 1 they are close to getting the necessary approvals for the work.
The city of Syracuse permitting office has confirmed that multiple departments are working with Skinner, who has had to make some last-minute changes to construction plans, to make this restoration a priority as the winter weather has already started in the Salt City.
