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It's Time For Us To Help Save The Lyric

Helen Ubiñas

April 06, 2010

The Lyric lives – least so far.

After the rear portion of the former Lyric Theater on Broad Street was demolished last month, the question remained:

What would become of the rest of the historic building?

As I said in my column, the demolition of the Broad Street portion was unfortunate. But taking down the Park Street building would be horrendous loss for one of Hartford's main strips.

After pestering Licenses and Inspections Director Edison Silva for a verdict on the Park Street side, Silva gave me an optimistic, if tentative, thumbs up this week.

City officials won't know for sure for weeks, Silva cautioned. But so far, chances for preserving the derelict city-owned building look good.

Great - now it's time for all the people who were understandably outraged at Hartford's vanishing history to step up.

If the Lyric has any chance of surviving, there needs to be a concrete, funded plan for its future.

Councilman Luis Cotto has a good idea: He's going to start a "Save the Lyric" fund.

But, he added, interested organizations - with a plan --- should also approach the city for support. The good news, Cotto said, is that the city's library is still interested in moving a branch into the building and that razing the rear section provided much-needed parking.

So - let's go. Time to save the Lyric.