Crossville’s Palace Theatre Deemed Safe, Reopened Monday

The Palace Theatre reopened Monday after the historic building was deemed safe by structural engineers.

The venue was closed over a week after a portion of wall collapsed onto the roof. City Manager Greg Wood said scheduled shows and programming will resume immediately.

“We had two structural engineers evaluate it,” Wood said. “They said once the debris was cleared off the roof, which we did last week, that the Palace was structural safe to continue performances.”

Wood said the city does plan to contract out the work to repair the wall. The some two-feet of brick was believed to be pushed over by a high-wind gust. Wood said the city continues to work with its insurance company to see how much will be covered.

“There were some cracks in the interior, but they did not believe those were associated with the failure on the roof,” Wood said. “Just some stress cracks that have just occurred due to movement in the building that naturally occurs.”

In the meantime, large clamps have been installed on the roof to keep water out of the building. Wood said the parking on the side of the building may also remain closed.

“Those walls have been standing for 80-90 years,” Wood said. “They’ve gone through rain, freezing rain and ice. They’re not built to today’s standards with tiebacks and things like that. They did pretty well considering the time and construction methodology.”