The Old Town Hall - Lakeside Theater has had many lives.  In the beginning it was used for meetings, dinners and dances. From the 1940s clear up into the 1980s it was operated as the Lakeside Theater, showing first-run movies, by the Kersave family.  During the 1990s a black ministerial group used it.  Later it was a jazz theater and then even a thrift store. It was on a downhill spiral over the years and was sorely neglected.
  In 1996 The Maine Avenue Revitalization Association (MARA) decided to restore the facade of the building, thinking that if it looked like someone cared it wouldn't be demolished and maybe something good would happen to it. Their prayers were answered.  Along came Wayne Erreca and the Octad One Production Company. They put their heart and sole and money into redesigning and rebuilding the interior of the theater. The theater company came from College Grove where they had been producing plays for the last 20 years. They were also well known for their "Shakespeare on the Green" in El Cajon.
  For the last six years, Octad One performed many interesting and unusual plays and had a very talented group of actors. Sadly, the theater closed its doors this year thanks due to a bad economy and a controversial and negative video about the town of Lakeside.
  MARA has now stepped up to the plate again and has taken over the theater building. Their goal is to restore it and bring live entertainment and theater back to Lakeside.  They will need the helping hand and support of the community to make this vision a reality.  This year's Lakeside Maine Avenue Street Dance will help fund this restoration project.

  Do you have some special memories, good or bad, of the Old Town Hall/Lakeside Theater?  If so, please call me, Betty McMillen, at 619-443-1133.  Or, you can e-mail me at scoopmcmillen@aol.com.  Our LHS President, Richard White, remembers that he got in trouble for writing on the bathroom walls of the theater at the age of seven -- tisk, tisk, tisk.  Richard also said that "it would be wonderful to see old movies shown on the 'silver screen' like had been seen there for so many years."

  Please share your memories of the Town Hall - Lakeside Theater.  They will be featured in this newsletter, and on the Society's web site (www.lakesidehistory.org).