*VPM News intern Alexander Broening reported this story.
This weekend, heavy rains in south Chesterfield caused Swift Creek to break its banks, flooding a historic theater. The Swift Creek Mill Theatre is one of the oldest standing grist mills in the United States, and was converted to a theater in 1965. The centuries-old building was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in the 1970s.
In his 44 years at the theater, artistic director Tom Width has seen his share of floods. But he says, “This was something different.” The speed of the rising water didn’t give the staff any time to prepare. Width says the theater is usually able to move furniture and paintings out from their lower dining room in order to minimize the impact of floods. This weekend however, the water rose to 15 feet on the theater’s flood-stick - mostly overnight.
“The water level went up 12 feet in 12 hours. By two in the morning, all our alarms were going off because the sensors were underwater,” Width says. The water level itself was higher than he’d ever seen. The dining room on the lowest floor was submerged from floor to ceiling, and floodwaters and mud rose 18 inches into the floor above. Width says it was “completely unprecedented.”
The damage was so extensive, he says, “There are chairs hanging from the chandeliers in our lower dining room.” The theater space itself lies on the top floor of the building, and so was not damaged, but the workshop was filled with a layer of mud. Two 20-ton storage containers that Width says contain costumes and set pieces were lifted and overturned by the flood as well.
Width adds that the timing of the flood, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, makes the situation worse. The theater had to furlough two-thirds of its staff at the start of the pandemic and cut pay for remaining employees. Even so, Width says the theater has almost no money left to pay for repairs itself.
Instead, the theater is relying on donations from the community to help pay for the cleaning and repairs. Width estimates that the entire process will cost $80 - $100,000. The theater has started a Go-Fund-Me page, and by Wednesday morning had raised nearly $16,000 towards its $20,000 goal.
Width says he’s been encouraged by the response from the community, and the number of people volunteering to help with clean up: “We’re an important fixture in the community, and the support we’re receiving proves that more than ever.”
The Swift Creek Mill Theatre plans to move some of its youth theater productions online this fall to continue to educate and entertain young people. The theater’s main-stage productions, however, will have to wait for an in-person reopening.
