Grants to fund more than $100K in repairs at the Wheeler Theater
Published 1:30 am Friday, April 3, 2026
PORT TOWNSEND — The historic Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden will receive some rehabilitation as part of a broader push by Centrum to preserve the site’s aging infrastructure.
Centrum Executive Director Robert Birman said he sees the preservation and capital work on the property as this generation’s legacy, serving the next generations who will use the property.
“As we fix up these buildings, it’s like repairing an old car,” Birman said. “Now it’ll be here 50 to 100 years from now.”
The work will include the replacement of 150 cracked bricks and repointing, which involves removing and replacing eroded mortar on the facade. The exterior of the structure will be coated in a waterproofing material. Also, the building will see electrical work.
Centrum has contracted Masonry Restoration Consulting of Lake Stevens to perform the exterior masonry work, while bids for the electrical upgrades are currently under review.
The theater was built in 1932 as a movie theater for soldiers at the fort, Birman said.
Repairs on the theater, now managed by Centrum, will be funded by a $53,694 grant award from the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) and equal matching funds from the Sage Foundation. In total, repairs are planned to cost $107,388.
Upkeep on the many historical structures at the fort has long been a challenge for property stakeholders. A newly signed 35-year lease between Centrum and Washington State Parks, the property’s owner, will allow Centrum to pay up to 80 percent of its rent through infrastructural maintenance and capital projects.
“This works for the state because they get their buildings fixed and we’re giving them fair market value for the buildings, just in the form of maintenance and restoration rather than rent,” Birman said.
The Wheeler Theater and the McCurdy Pavilion are now among the 14 buildings managed by Centrum, which has used the buildings on a regular basis for more than five decades. Centrum first took over management last year when property management defaulted to State Parks following a receivership and the termination of the Fort Worden Public Development Authority in February 2025.
“It was at that moment that they asked me if we would take the theaters under our lease, which we were happy to do,” Birman said. “For 53 years, we rented those theaters.”
The agreement signed in January includes the possibility to extend the lease 35 more years.
Birman plans to move into a new role next year, solely dedicated to raising funds for capital projects and overseeing the sometimes complex and slow process of permitting, locating contractors, etc., for the historical structures.
Centrum’s assessment of the needs on the property isn’t new. In 2021, the arts organization commissioned a $70,000 full report on the site’s needs from a firm in Seattle.
“We have a 310-page report outlining every maintenance requirement in the facilities for the next 20 years,” Birman said. “That report helps me raise money because it’s an independent accounting of the needs here. It’s not Centrum’s opinion, it’s an independent assessment.”
The exterior work is expected to be completed by early summer, and the first programming scheduled in the updated building will be the Brazilian Choro concerts corresponding to the week of workshops beginning April 24.
“It’s a Brazilian art form. We’ve been doing this for 15 years. It’s extremely popular,” Birman said. “The concerts are already sold out.”
The workshop faculty, who travel from Brazil for the workshop, also will be the first to stay in the newly remodeled artist cabins.
The cabins, which house workshop instructors, musicians and artists in residency throughout the year, originally were built as temporary housing for military barracks leading up to World War II, Birman said.
Contractors were required to preserve the historical layout of the exteriors but were able to gut the interiors down to the studs, moving walls and shifting layouts, Birman said.
A ribbon cutting for the completion of the $1.6 million renovation of the cabins will be held at 10 a.m. April 13. The cabins are located near Alexander’s Castle and the large Madrona tree on the northeast side of the upper campus.
Next on the horizon will be a full remodel of Building 205, which Centrum expects to break ground on in 2028. The project already has $878,000 from a state Department of Commerce grant, received last year, Birman said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
