“No city in the entire West offers as splendid a field for a first-class theatre-auditorium as Grand Junction,” Walter Walker said in his pitch to the community for a new community theater. After years of bringing in speakers and entertainers to various Grand Junction venues, Walker felt the time was ripe, promising to build Grand Junction a new theater that “would handle the finest road shows, the big artists, concert companies, the big feature movies, conventions, Chautauquas, big indoor athletic events, large banquets, private dances,” as well as many other local events.

He used the influence of his newspaper to gather a groundswell of public support for the new project and $100,000 in investments from across Colorado. He acquired property for the theater on the spot of the old Town Company at the corner of 7th and Main Streets in Grand Junction, where Grand Junction was incorporated as a city by former Governor George Crawford.
The Daily Sentinel held a contest for readers asking for the local community’s input as to the identity of the new theater. Hundreds of names were suggested, including “The Grand,” “The Dreamland,” “The Eldorado,” and “The Rimrock”. Kathryn Forrest of Grand Junction submitted the winning entry, “The Avalon.” In the Daily Sentinel, April 14, 1922, (link) it was noted that the name means “Land of the Blessed.” Miss Forrest was awarded $10 for her contribution.

Well-respected local businessman William Moyer served as the Avalon Theatre Company’s first board President with Walter Walker as Vice President and General Manager. Local businessmen James H. Rankin, Clyde Biggs, and Ollie Bannister rounded out the board of directors. The Avalon was designed by Mountjoy & Frewen of Denver; construction was begun in the spring of 1922 and was supervised by Frank Frewen, Jr.

The Avalon Theatre was scheduled to open no later than early fall 1922, but shipping delays, material thefts, and labor disputes postponed the opening. Undeterred, sales for the opening of The Avalon were brisk and by mid-October over a thousand seats had been sold for the grand opening. Ushers and theater staff were hired, with Ira De Long as its first Projectionist; Glen Schrader, John Cameron, and Earl Blackstone were hired to round out The Avalon Theatre Orchestra which was to provide musical accompaniment before, during, and after films as well as for dance and concert performances.

A performance by internationally known soprano Lucy Gates opened The Avalon on Friday, January 5, 1923, with the Daily Sentinel calling The Avalon "a playhouse of which any city many times larger than Grand Junction would be very proud." Films filled out the program for opening weekend with “My Old Kentucky Home,” “The Village Sheik” and Mary Pickford in “Tess of the Storm Country” accompanied by The Avalon Theatre Orchestra. A touring company performed the stage play “The Bat” on January 10, demonstrating the promise of The Avalon’s diverse cultural and entertainment possibilities.
As the mid-point on the train route between Denver and Salt Lake City, the small, rugged, railroad town of Grand Junction became well-acquainted with live theater. The Avalon Theatre hosted many high-caliber touring companies, acts, and speakers, including John Phillip Sousa, poet Carl Sandburg, Ethel Barrymore, William Jennings Bryan, Roland Hayes, and “Father of the Air Force,” Billy Mitchell.

The Avalon also hosted the biggest Hollywood films of the day, along with local musicians, dances, and many other community events. The Grand Junction Lions Club held an annual show at the theatre during the 1920s to raise money to help the local college. The Soup Eaters, a program started by Daily Sentinel reporter Al Look, gave toys to underprivileged children during the Great Depression, and many local high schools used the theatre for graduation ceremonies.

The original Avalon Theatre Company folded in 1929 and passed through several owners throughout the 1930s. After years of use, The Avalon fell into disrepair and was purchased in 1943 by the Cooper Foundation, headed by former partner of Paramount pictures Joseph H. Cooper. Leaving only the original side walls and roof trusses in place, a complete remodel and modernization of the building took place with a projected cost of $180,000. The original Colonial Revival façade of the 1920s was covered over in an Art Moderne style. Freshly remodeled as a movie house including modern acoustics, projection, and the biggest indoor movie screen between Pueblo and Salt Lake City, The Avalon was renamed “The Cooper Theater” and reopened to great local fanfare on August 27, 1947. Movies were shown daily at The Cooper through the late 1980s, but after more than 40 years, The Cooper finally closed its doors as multiplex movie theaters took over the local market.

What was once the crown jewel of Grand Junction had fallen into shambles. The City of Grand Junction reclaimed the building in lieu of taxes. With support of the City of Grand Junction, and led by local businessman Pat Gormley, The Avalon Theatre Foundation was formed in 1991. Its original mission was the historic restoration of the beautiful Romanesque Revival building. It successfully undertook a fundraising effort in the mid-1990s that provided for the restoration of the theater's original 1923 façade. Restoring the theater to its original name “The Avalon,” the historic preservation movement eventually raised enough private funds to restore the exterior of the building to its original glory, but left the aged interior largely unchanged.

Beginning in 2008, the Downtown Development Authority and the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra led a master plan to take the next step to transform the Avalon Theatre into a modern, state-of-the-art performing arts venue. With significant support from the City of Grand Junction and the DDA, the Avalon Theatre Foundation raised funding from private individuals, businesses, and foundations to renovate and expand the theatre in order to improve the economic and cultural development of our community.

The ambitious 9.6-million-dollar Cornerstone Project began in 2013 with architects Westlake, Reed, Leskowsky, specializing in historic preservation, and Chamberlin Architects; construction carried out by FCI Constructors. The patron-focused remodel brought The Avalon up to modern code, ADA compliance, with a completely remodeled auditorium and new expanded seating, a patron elevator, and digital cinema projection. A building expansion brought a large multi-purpose room, a beautiful mezzanine with large windowed views of downtown Grand Junction, expanded concessions and restrooms, a box office, and an outdoor rooftop terrace for smaller events with stunning views of the Grand Mesa and Mt. Garfield. A Grand Re-Opening took place in September 2014 with great fanfare and celebration.

Once again the “Crown Jewel of Main Street,” The Avalon now boasts over 250 events and over 72,000 patrons annually. With support of the City of Grand Junction, the Avalon Theatre Foundation continues to raise funding for improvements including equipment and furnishing for the Encore Hall in 2018, a $100,000 state-of-the-art sound system in 2019, and a digital marquee and stage improvements in 2020.
http://www.avalontheatrefoundation.org/about.html

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