Jonesborough’s Jackson Theatre now in final stages of renovations

JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL)—The Jackson Theatre is in the heart of downtown Jonesborough and has been receiving renovations since 2015. The theater has now said that plans to reopen this year are underway.

The Jackson Theatre was originally called the Blue Mouse in the 1920s and showed silent black-and-white films. It became the Jackson Theatre in the 1940s and continued to show movies, but in the 1960s, it closed and became an office complex.

The Town of Jonesborough acquired the property in 2015 and since then. there have been efforts to restore it back into a theater.

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The restoration process involved re-slanting the audience floor, gutting the office spaces, installing new balcony railings, new seats and much more.

“The rigging and the lighting for our stage is probably the biggest component,” Chuck Vest, Jonesborough Mayor, said. “That should be wrapped up in May. Right now, it’s the little flurry of finishing the door work and a lot a little bit of trim work. And they’re putting our glass in our press box now, which is nice to see.”

The space has also been expanded to house concessions and restrooms upstairs.

Next door, Zac Jenkins and his wife have owned Main Street Cafe & Catering for 9 years.
Jenkins said he is excited for the reopening and for the construction to be finished.

“We’re hoping to expand our hours to accommodate the people going into the theater,” Jenkins said. “And I think it’s just going to be a great boom for the town in general. It’s going to bring people in to have some nightlife here in town, which we’ve never really had before. So we’re we’re looking forward to it.”

Jenkins said he had seen the inside of the Jackson Theatre.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Jenkins said, “And sure we know that being next door more than anybody else. So I just hope everybody’s been patient and understanding with everything that they’ve gone through to try to get this done. But having gone through on the inside, they have done an excellent job. It’s going to be really cool.”

On the other side of the Jackson Theatre, is the Jonesborough Repertory Theatre, known as the JRT. When the Jackson reopens, the JRT will perform some of their shows there.

“They’re going to have much more capacity to do larger shows here, especially with the type of rigging we’ll have on the stage,” Vest said. “They just don’t have that capability now. That’s a talented group and we’re excited about them being having bigger shows here. We’ll have larger audiences, of course, but in addition to the JRT, we’ll have some live music performances from other acts as well.”

Mayor Vest said the town has also hired a planner for the Jackson Theatre. He said the theater has a long rich history they are happy to continue.

“Biggest thing about the Jackson that I’ve heard is that there’ve been so many people, especially our older people, who have experience of coming to this theater back in the sixties, maybe having their first date and things like that. So, there’s a lot of excitement in the town of Jonesborough from our residents about reliving this again. So, we’re excited about bringing that happiness back to a lot of people.”

Mayor Vest said they are in the final stages of renovating and hope to have the doors open by the middle of this year.

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