ATTLEBORO -- What Jennifer Keating likes to refer to as "Attleboro’s Sleeping Beauty" has gotten almost $5,000 in donations in less than a week. Donations to help in the restoration of the Union Theater, at the corner of Union and Dunham streets, are underway with the goal of raising $500,000. It would be used for plays, musical performances and perhaps at some point movies.
But after just less than one week of fundraising the group led by Keating -- director and founder of Illuminate Creative + Theatrical Arts Co. -- and Tracy Barbosa of MassDevelopment, has raised $4,615. Emblazoned on the theater's marquee is "Let's Turn The Light On.
" The theater first opened its doors in 1928, offering vaudeville acts and other live entertainment. With 1,101 seats and a grand main screen, Keating said it was a marvel of its time. It was later used as a movie theater and in 1986, chopped up into smaller sections to lure more movie-goers.
Since then, it has opened and closed several times under names such as the Roxy Theater and Attleboro Cinema, before finally returning to its original moniker, the Union Theater. It closed in 2002. Illuminate and MassDevelopment have contracted with an architectural firm that has drawn up plans to restore the theater.
“Over the past year, a movement has quietly begun to breathe new life into the Union Theater,” Keating said. “Through community collaboration facilitated by MassDevelopment’s Transitional Development Initiative Program, a local non.
