Growing up in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood, Nehemiah Jett would walk past the light fixture store near University and Victoria avenues and pay it little mind. Nor did it draw his attention when it became vacant. And then a concerted community effort to save the century-old structure from demolition and position it for stage performances and arts programming caught his imagination four years ago, putting him on a path to become the building’s new communications and relationships manager.
“Finding out individuals did notice it and they fought to save this place, it makes me proud to be from Frogtown,” said Jett, whose grandmother used to participate in neighborhood parades wearing an inflatable frog attached to her straw hat. “Frogtown is where my family is from. It has a rich history to it, and yet it’s kind of frowned upon.”
Tyler Olsen-Highness recently threw open the doors to the $6.5 million reinvention of the building recently referred to as the Victoria Theater Arts Center, directly across from the Green Line’s Victoria Street light-rail station, and there’s already change afoot. The history-laden structure, like the nonprofit that runs it, was renamed “825 Arts” this spring in an effort to distance itself from the colonial legacy of Queen Victoria.
“We found that as we were talking with people about the ‘Victoria Theater,’ they would say, ‘oh, well I’m a dancer, I’m not a theater person’,” said Olsen-Highness, executive director of the space he said will welcome “825 different types of art.”
As of late August, the brick-faced former silent theater, cabaret and light fixture shop is now a multi-level community arts hub, offering a 120-seat theater, meeting rooms and a sizable front lobby with enough room to sport a smaller stage of its own at 825 W. University Ave., along the border of the Frogtown and Rondo neighborhoods.
The front lobby of 825 Arts, in the former Victoria Theater at 825 University Ave. W. in St. Paul, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. The center is up and running after a 12-year, $6.5 million rehabilitation. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
On tap is a guided group arts project using the digital world known as “Minecraft,” a 12-week jump-rope intensive dubbed “Rondo Double Dutch,” artist circles and private events. In early October, the zAmya Theater will tour the musical production “A Prairie Homeless Companion,” which showcases the lives of the less fortunate in the fictional town of Miserable Falls, Minn., using both satire and true stories of rural homelessness. Wonderlust Productions, Ten Thousand Things Theater and “Divas and Drag” have also booked stage time.
“People are excited and inspired by the space and are signing up,” said Olsen-Highness, who began fundraising and organizing for the arts center more than a dozen years ago. Some might even say its grand opening last month was the culmination of a solid century of work, given that its history winds up from the silent movie era of the early 1900s, through Prohibition and on to University Avenue’s heyday as a retail destination.
A silent theater and ‘Moonshiner’s Dance’
Built around 1917, the building is recognized for its Beaux Arts-style brick and terra-cotta façade, as well as some interior historical flourishes, like a pastoral mural that winds across multiple walls and likely dates back to at least the 1920s, when the silent theater became a restaurant and cabaret. On the second floor, two box-like openings in an interior brick wall were likely inlays for silent film projectors.
“We really worked hard to preserve whatever historical artistic elements were left in the building, whether it was a really intricate wall stenciling from the old building, or the full-building-height pillars with decorative capitals,” said Olsen-Highness on Tuesday.
The two-story structure even holds a footnote in the history of early 20th-century American folk music.
In 2011, the St. Paul Historic Preservation Commission designated the property a locally-designated Heritage Preservation Site, in part because of one particular song — the “Moonshiner’s Dance Part One” — that was recorded by Frank Cloutier and the Victoria Cafe’s house orchestra in 1927. The upbeat, whooping medley of cabaret-style jazz and polka was included in the 1952 “Anthology of American Folk Music,” a seminal collection of the nation’s genre-defining folk tunes from the 1920s and ’30s.
The folk anthology would go on to inspire the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead, among other singer-songwriters of the tumultuous 1960s. It would also, in a roundabout way, help save the building from demolition some 60 years later.
The main performance area at 825 Arts, in the former Victoria Theater at 825 University Ave. W. in St. Paul, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. The center is up and running after a 12-year, $6.5 million rehabilitation. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
After serving as a cabaret in the 1920s and early 1930s, the Victoria Theater was eventually remodeled into a light fixture shop, which closed in the late 1990s. Building owner Bee Vue planned to sell the property in 2008 to a nonprofit developer interested in demolishing the structure and installing a parking lot, but that plan was shelved in the face of intense community opposition.
After gaining local historic status, the building was acquired in 2014 by the Twin Cities Community Land Bank, which held onto it until the arts coalition then dubbed the “New Victoria Theater Project” had completed enough fundraising to purchase it outright. For Olsen-Highness and others attached to the reinvention of the Victoria Theater, the past decade has been a painstaking labor of love.
About half the $6.5 million funding came from foundations and private fundraising, and the other half was public funding through the city and state.
Jett, the nonprofit’s relationships manager, said the center will soon debut low-cost artist memberships — perhaps as low as $10 — allowing creatives from different disciplines to access the space, workshop pieces and qualify for a $500 production award, with a new recipient chosen each month by an artist circle. He foresees local acts — perhaps future Bob Dylans, Soul Asylums and Lizzos — getting their start at 825 Arts.
“We hold about 120 seated, which is enough if you want to do something intimate, like a private event,” Jett said. “Any performer’s objective is to perform at larger and larger venues as they progress, and we want to be one of their first.”
From the Victoria Theater to 825 Arts
825 Arts, in the former Victoria Theater at 825 University Ave. W. in St. Paul, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. The center is up and running after a 12-year, $6.5 million rehabilitation. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Built in 1915, it was one of three silent movie theaters owned by Henry Breilein along University Avenue. It was designed by Franklin Ellerbe and features a Beaux Arts-style brick and terra-cotta façade. Its history:
• 1924: The theater was remodeled into the Victoria Cafe, a dance hall featuring cabaret-style floor shows and Chinese cuisine.
• 1927: The house orchestra recorded “Moonshiner’s Dance,” which was included on the 1952 collection called the “Anthology of American Folk Music.”
• 1930s to late 1990s: The Victoria served as a light-fixture shop.
• 2008: Owner Bee Vue considered selling the property to a nonprofit developer interested in demolishing the Victoria and building a parking lot. The developer backed out amid community opposition.
• 2011: The St. Paul Historic Preservation Commission designated the property an official Heritage Preservation Site.
• 2014: The Twin Cities Community Land Bank bought the Victoria from Bee Vue, giving an arts coalition additional time to raise funds and acquire it outright.
• 2024: Once dubbed the Victoria Theater Arts Center, the structure opens to the public as “825 Arts,” a multi-space community arts hub featuring two stages and youth programming.
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