Liberty Hall Stage Floor - 642 Massachusetts Street

Liberty Hall, Lawrence, Kansas

You can't have a performance facility without a stage—and it’s one of the most difficult elements to repair, because it’s always in use. General Manager Dean Eddington and Liberty Hall owner Susan Millstein had been monitoring areas of the stage floor that were showing damage and gradually getting worse. And much like working on an old porch floor, the damaged flooring was a symptom of other  repairs needed to the framing underneath, which in some areas were a failing patchwork of support systems. It was time for a comprehensive project to address these issues.

The Flaming Lips were just one of the many performers to leave their mark on the stage floor.

The existing floor was installed during a rehabilitation project in 1985-86, when Millstein, in partnership with her husband David and Charlie and Tensie Oldfather, purchased the historic Bowersock Opera House and brought it back from the dead. That stage floor spanned multiple areas, including part of a previously discovered orchestra pit and a portion of a massive concrete basement ceiling. 

As part of the new project, which qualifies for state historic tax credits, the floor was disassembled in sections, the support systems were stabilized and leveled, a new subfloor was installed, and new flooring that matched the size and finish of existing materials was integrated with undamaged existing flooring. With the help of Chris Miller, Skip Shears and Anthony Dale, the project was completed during a small scheduling window between events. The stage floor is now back in use and supporting entertainment for all members of our community.

The finished floor is performance-ready.

Susan and David received a Preservation Achievement Award from Lawrence Preservation Alliance in 2015, in part for saving the theatre, which had failed financially and was directly in the crosshairs of large-scale redevelopment proposals. The current Beaux-Arts style building, constructed by J.D. Bowersock  after fire destroyed the previous theatre in 1911, was designed to be fireproof --and succeeded to the point that during World War II it was certified by the U.S. Government as able to withstand bombing. But it took the combined efforts of the Millsteins and Oldfathers—who brought back the name Liberty Hall, which was the name of the building Bowersock had purchased in 1882—for it to also withstand urban renewal. Thanks, Susan Millstein, for continuing to cherish and protect this iconic landmark structure in our historic downtown.