Threatening rain clouds loomed over main street in downtown Fairfax as crews from All Performance Roofing and Restoration shouted instructions in Spanish amidst the slinging of hammers nailing down some of the first pieces of wood to cover a cavernous hole in the roof of the Tall Chief Theater.
“It’s a new day,” Carol Conner said almost tearily.
Conner, along with the Fairfax Community Foundation, has been raising money to fix the roof of the theater since a 2017 tornado tore the roof off and damaged several other businesses in downtown Fairfax. Through hundreds of small donations and one large one, the work got done over the Easter weekend.
“It’s been so long in coming that you can almost be forgiven for giving up hope,” Conner wrote about the roof getting the much-needed fix in the latest edition of The Fairfax Chief, the newspaper that she and her late husband Joe Conner published.
Joe Conner felt that fixing the Tall Chief Theater was key to reviving the town of Fairfax. All over the main street, visitors who drive by can see signs asking people to donate via a QR code to save the nearly 100-year-old theater.
Blue Sky Bank, which is owned by Gentner Drummond, pitched in the last $5,000 needed to complete the roof repair. Blue Sky was a small community bank and could qualify for a $25,000 grant to give to qualifying foundations and other non-profits like the Fairfax Community Foundation. Carol said that when it became Blue Sky, it no longer qualified for that pot of money – leaving the promise she received of the $5,000 needed to complete the roof repair from the previous bank in jeopardy.
Carol, who is known for her tenacity, called up Drummond and told him about the grant.
“He told me he would do whatever he could to help Fairfax,” Carol said.
According to a 2017 Osage News article, the total cost to repair the 850-seat theater tops out at $1.5 million. Carol Conner said that hundreds of smaller donations were made after the premier of the film “Killers of the Flower Moon.” It was featured on NPR’s weekend edition magazine show, after which she said people from all over made donations between $25-$100.
Just finding a company to turn in a bid to revive the theater was a challenge. Carol said that many roofing companies told her how easy it would be to fix the roof. They never turned in a bid.
“Older buildings can be a challenge to work on,” said David Rodriguez from All Performance Roofing and Restoration. He and his crew from Tulsa worked over the Easter holiday to get the roof in place before more of the elements could get in and damage the stage that’s been covered by a thick black tarp to catch the rain.
The theater has many colorful stories, including a shootout involving one of the people involved in the Osage murders. It was built in 1928 by Alex Tall Chief as a way to honor his daughters Maria and Marjorie Tall Chief, two of America’s most famous ballerinas.
The theater was built to lift the mood in the community after the Osage murders and according to Carol, it is one of the first buildings by a Native American architect.
There is a lot more to be done to make the theater a usable space – plumbing, electrical, and walls.
The goal is to make it a multi-purpose space that can be used for theater, dance, movies and events. The building next door, also owned by the foundation, is expected to become a memorial to the victims of the Osage Reign of Terror.
