The Historic Auditorium of St. Croix Falls, WI

Name: The Historic Auditorium of St. Croix Falls, WI
Address: 210 North Washington Street, Taylors Falls, MN, 54024, US
Telephone: +17155570876
Rating: 5

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The Historic Auditorium of St. Croix Falls, WI

The Historic Auditorium will be the premier Music and Performing Arts Venue in St. Croix Falls, Wis.
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05/30/2024

New blacktop on the south side and east end of The Historic Auditorium was installed today. We are getting nearer to completion. Progress!

05/17/2024

As we near completion of our renovation of The Historic Auditorium, it is nice to see the last of the historic exterior stairways back in place today. Progress!

05/03/2024

We are getting closer to the finishing touches here at The Historic Auditorium project. I suppose I shouldn’t get so excited about being almost done with all the bathrooms….but I just can’t help it. They are all looking so darn good! Progress!

05/01/2024

Well, well, well. Today was a big day. No more plywood covering our front doors on The Historic Auditorium!
What a nice change to the western facade facing Main Street. It must signal that we are getting closer to completion. Progress!

04/26/2024

Continuing our efforts on the exterior landscaping at The Historic Auditorium today……before the rains this weekend.
Excavation for the new plaza area out front, as well as rockscaping the north side of the building from the east alley to main street on the west.
Progress!

04/25/2024

JUST LOOK AT HER NOW!

Thanks for putting this story together, Danette! You'll find this info and so much more in the St. Croix Valley Tourism Alliance 2024 Visitor Guide.

04/14/2024

Our new patio is getting closer to completion at The Historic Auditorium. The spring weather has cooperated enough to get our outdoor seating area built ahead of schedule…..which is really nice as we still have a ways to go in other areas of our renovation. Stay tuned. Progress!

04/01/2024

So, something cool happened to us and our project recently. We were awarded the Top Redevelopment Project for 2023 by Momentum West. Momentum West is a regional economic development company spearheading development initiatives and driving regional growth for West Central Wisconsin.
We are very honored to be selected for this award for our renovation of The Historic Auditorium here in St Croix Falls. We were selected because of our buildings historic value to our community, as an anchor building in our downtown and helping foster a revitalization of the entire downtown corridor.
Thank you Momentum West. We will proudly display this award at our building!

03/14/2024

The balcony tiered floors have been rebuilt and refinished here at The Historic Auditorium. Ready for seat installation. Progress!

03/07/2024

It’s been such nice weather outside most of this winter, we are way ahead of schedule on the patio build at The Historic Auditorium.
This work is going on this week.

02/13/2024

Tile, tile, and more tile. Bathrooms are getting closer. It’s exciting to see finishes going in.
Progress !

02/08/2024

We’re excited that we have been able to save the original loading dock doors of The Historic Auditorium and hang them backstage on a barn door track. They need a little tlc where there is some wear damage, but all in all they are in surprisingly good shape for being over 100 years old !

02/06/2024

Tile setting in the elevator lobby on the mezzanine level of The Historic Auditorium. Note the deck joists showing through the doorway …..ready for finish decking….which will be installed very soon.
Progress!

12/27/2023

Another exciting day at The Historic Auditorium. Our dock lift was installed! This addition alone is a huge improvement to the functionality of our performing arts space. Progress!

12/19/2023

Elevator delivery day at The Historic Auditorium. It took the installation crew the better part of the day unpacking and getting the parts into the building. They are telling us about two weeks to install it.
I know many folks want snow this time of year, but it sure makes life easier at our construction site to not have to deal with it.

12/13/2023

We are in the final stretch of hole cutting in our 18” thick solid concrete walls to create chase ways for the remaining hvac ducts on the first floor of The Historic Auditorium. Check out the size of that saw blade!
I have mentioned several times how much I admire the skill and work performed by the trades folks working on our project. This is difficult work and we appreciate their contributions.

12/09/2023

Here’s another sneak peek at our original fire curtain backdrop at The Historic Auditorium.
It is in the process of encapsulation to make it safe to be used after our renovation is complete. It’s a fairly arduous task requiring a thorough cleaning and several coats of approved material and many hours of labor in the process.
Thank you to Walter Lab for his work on this aspect of our project!

12/06/2023

We are ready to start the building out of the elevator going into The Historic Auditorium. So, I thought I would share a unique view of the elevator shaft that will never be seen again once the new elevator is installed.

11/22/2023

Our mason was very busy recently rebuilding the center columns on the front brick facade and tuck pointing every cement joint on the entire surround
Looks exactly the same as it did prior to this work you say?……That’s exactly the effect we were going for ! With the excellent work by Scott (our mason) and his crew, the western facade of The Historic Auditorium is now officially complete. By way of reminder, we are keeping the refinished front doors under wraps during the continuing construction on the interior….so unfortunately we all have to deal with the plywood for a few more months.

11/22/2023

The day before Thanksgiving turned out to be a perfect day to do our last outdoor cement pour of the year. In this case we needed to get this cement in so we can move forward on placing the two back stairway platforms and steps on the loading dock addition.
We’ve tried our best to take advantage of the nice long “snow free” fall we’ve had this year.
Progress !!

11/11/2023

We finally have our loading dock door installed on the new addition! Still some trim work to do But , it’s Very nice to have the last door in place and the building buttoned up.
Hopefully the loading dock lift will go in soon.

11/11/2023

Still trying to finish up outdoor projects while the weather holds
Here we are getting some cement work done around the back addition.

10/31/2023

When you think of renovating a building you probably don’t think about the electrical needs of upgrading the systems required to run everything you have to add to make it function properly
In our case Excel Energy had to plant a new pole and will be placing a new very large ground transformer with underground cables to power The Historic Auditorium into the future.
Thank you to the linemen for the power company that are making this possible!

10/19/2023

One thing for sure, this great old building is in a beautiful place, in a wonderful city...happy autumn from The Historic Auditorium of St. Croix Falls, WI

10/12/2023

They’re Back!!
After 100 plus years, the boarded up main windows in The Historic Auditorium have been restored and reinstalled. It has been quite a process to rebuild the sashes and frames, install new glass where needed, re-glaze, prime, paint, weather seal, and re-hang the 12 foot tall windows in the performance hall.
Hanging the new matching storm windows will complete this part of the renovation of our building.
I have to admit this was one of my main goals in restoring the auditorium. It’s very satisfying to see them standing proud and showing off once again the way they did back in 1917!

10/11/2023

I’ve mentioned that the electrical system has been a challenge in the building as we continue our renovation. Here I’m showing one of the old electrical panels (on the left) and a new panel going in (on the right). All in all we are removing the three old panels that fed the building and replacing them with three new panels. The new ones are 6’ high each. Quite an upgrade overall.

10/04/2023

The large windows (which have been boarded up for over 80 years….or maybe even longer)in the performance hall part of The Historic Auditorium have all been rebuilt and are being reinstalled this week. New wood, new glass where needed, new glazing, new paint, new interior stain. Obviously the jambs have to still be painted but that will happen very soon.
They will look fabulous …….inside and out…..when done.

10/02/2023

So this happened this afternoon……final colors applied to the western facade of The Historic Auditorium!
Well, Painter Jesse is just brushing the final strokes as I write this.
It’s nice to have the medallions, cornice and banding highlighted again as they were originally.
Hope y’all like it as much as we do!

10/02/2023

09/22/2023

Pretty busy on the exterior of The Historic Auditorium today……as you can see in this short video. Painting windows, stucco work and more Sheetrock.
Progress while the nice weather holds.

Address

210 North Washington Street
Taylors Falls, MN
54024

Telephone

+17155570876

Website

http://www.thehistoricauditorium.com/

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Videos

The Historic Auditorium

Continuing our efforts on the exterior landscaping at The Historic Auditorium today……before the rains this weekend. Excavation for the new plaza area out front, as well as rockscaping the north side of the building from the east alley to main street on the west. Progress!

Elevator construction starting very soon!

Still trying to finish up outdoor projects while the weather holds Here we are getting some cement work done around the back addition.

Sheet rock sanding

Pretty busy on the exterior of The Historic Auditorium today……as you can see in this short video. Painting windows, stucco work and more Sheetrock. Progress while the nice weather holds.

If you drive by the auditorium today and tomorrow you will notice that scaffolding is back up on the north tower and the east addition. And before you comment on the color being applied to the building…..this is only an application of a waterproofing membrane that is rolled onto the cement block wall before they attach the insulation. It is not the final color of the building. There are several steps in this process and this is only step one.

Quite a bit of activity today at the auditorium project. The one that I sympathized with the most on this 98 degree day with near 80% humidity was this poor guy who got the job of insulating the soffits in the east addition. Wearing a full hazmat suit with full face mask and respirator and gloves had to be brutal. I didn’t have the courage to ask him how it was going. I’m sure I would have gotten an ear full! I’d like to reiterate yet again how much I admire all of the folks that work in the construction trades……and specifically those on our project. They’ve all been very impressive!

The last pour of interior cement for our project happened this morning. This is the east end (along the alley) loading dock addition to the original building. Progress!

Part of the renovation of our old building is making sure that the drainage system is fully functioning to keep water away from the foundation. In this case we are reconnecting the piping that was completely blocked (we think from when the 1960’s lobby addition to the western facade was removed in the late 90’s) and getting the water to flow into the storm water drain system at the street. We are having to do this on both sides of the building. You can see that even in this drought year we are having, there is constant flow of water around the foundation due to side hill seepage that we have all around town.

Well, we’re still in the demolition phase but that is winding down. Very soon we will be starting the “putting back together “ phase. At any rate, this short video is us removing the old tile in the main lobby area. Stay tuned, and thank you so much for your support!

It takes quite a crew to get the cement placed correctly coming out of the pumper truck. I totally admire what these gentlemen do for a living. This is hard work.

More activity at the site today. We are pouring the floors in the north tower addition so we had to enlist the help of a cement pumper truck. Turns out we couldn’t talk the cement crew into carrying the cement up 5 flights of stairs in 5 gallon buckets….go figure! This truck was impressive to say the least. The reason we needed such a big rig is that since the 2nd floor mezzanine level does not have a window on the street side of the building we had to go over the top of the building to gain access to that space.

Here’s a short video of some interior construction if you would like to see what phase we are in. (Sound on if you want a little better understanding via narration). We have a long way to go but we are making significant progress…..and improvements. I do get requests for tours by various folks, but I hope you can see why we are reluctant to do so at this juncture in the renovation. Stay tuned for more posts and pictures!