Bowl House Project Enters Final Phase!  Contributions Still Needed!  by Jeff Waldron

We love it when a plan comes together!  After many years of fund raising and incremental progress, the ultimate realization of our efforts to save, restore and adaptively reuse the historic Mission Gables Bowl House building located in the Smiley Park historic district is at hand.  Craftsmen are working hard to complete the third and final phase of the project before the curtain rises on the 2012 Summer Music Festival.

While project phases one and two concentrated on providing public restroom facilities and exterior enhancements such as the beautiful Talbert Courtyard, phase three completes the building’s interior restoration.  Once completed, the building will contain Redlands Community Music Association offices, a small museum for displaying Summer Music Festival artifacts, much needed storage space, and a recital hall on the second floor.  It will be fully handicap accessible and will complement the Bowl and Smiley Park with beautiful landscaping.  The completed Mission Gables Bowl House will prove a new venue for our Festival Children’s Music Workshops and will also enable the RCMA to offer many other music-related services, especially to the children, but to all the citizens of Redlands throughout the year.

Raising the funds needed for all three phases of this project was an amazing accomplishment on the part of the City of Redlands, the Redlands Community Music Association, the Redlands Conservancy, and the many private donors who generously contributed.  Because of that generosity, we will be able to occupy the building and begin offering programs and services that will take the Bowl to an even higher level of public service.  However, we still need help furnishing the building and completing final touches like window coverings and appliances.

With your help, we will be able to complete this building to serve many future generations of Bowl audiences.  If you are interested in partnering with the RCMA and the other wonderful private donors who have created this new music resource for our town, please contact the Bowl office at 909-793-7316, or the project manager, Jeff Waldron at 909-793-9894.