Years ago, the Strand theater was a second home for the Boutwell family.
“When I think about home, I think about two places — it was the house that was our home and it was the theater that was our home, because we were here seven days a week,” said Paula Boutwell Kerr of McCool. “This was home, so lots of good memories are tied up in this place for sure.”
Kerr, along with her sisters Diane Boutwell Grey of Kosciusko and Kaye Boutwell McCrory of Greenwood, reminisced about their childhood memories Monday at theater. The Boutwell sisters had requested to look inside the downtown building one last time before demolition work begins in the city’s restoration project. The city, which owns the Strand, granted their request, and the sisters were accompanied by Mayor Tim Kyle as they took a walk down memory lane.
“We would walk to here,” after school, said Grey. “The theater would open for the matinee at 3:30. We would sell tickets for one show, get in the car and go home. Mother would have supper ready. We’d change clothes and be back here at 6:15, and if we had a second show at night, we would get back home about 11 o’clock, so we did all of our homework here. We all worked together.”
The Boutwell family moved to Kosciusko in 1956, which was when their father, William Cleo Boutwell, began managing the theater. The theater was owned by Max Connett.
Boutwell and his wife, Lula Mae Boutwell, had five children. The three sisters also had two brothers, Connett Boutwell and Bill Boutwell, who are now deceased.
The Boutwell family ran the Strand until the late 1980s.
“All the kids worked here, and it was not like work, like you didn’t want to do it, it was like family, and it was just something we did, and it was a unique lifestyle that we had,” said Kerr.
The Boutwell children made 50 cents an hour helping out their parents at the Strand.
“We thought we were paid to have fun,” said Grey.
She remembered when one of her professors at Holmes Junior College recognized her name, Boutwell.
He said to her, “I went to the theater the other night, and a Boutwell sold me a ticket, a Boutwell tried to make me buy some popcorn, a Boutwell helped show me to my seat and another one was running the projector — how many of you are there?
“I think I said something like, ‘Enough to run a theater,’” Grey said with a laugh.
While the sisters reminisced about their memories of the Strand, Kyle did, too. The Strand is also a special place for him. Kyle met his wife, Beth, at the theater, upstairs on the balcony, during a Sassy Jones concert. The Boutwell sisters’ brother, Bill Boutwell, was a member of that band, and he was also a member of the Bluz Boys band from Jackson.
“It’s good to see it again, even in its bare bones,” said McCrory, “because it’s going to be gorgeous. I’m so excited for Kosciusko, because they are doing this for the community. I can’t wait to see it.”
The Strand restoration project will revitalize the building and transform it into an multipurpose events center, available for special occasions such as engagement parties, wedding receptions or serve as a venue for business meetings or conferences. The building next to the Strand, which is the former office of The Star-Herald, will be a support building to the center, and in the future, it will house a Native American museum. Native American artifacts will also be featured in the Strand building.
Ramsey Construction based in Yazoo City will be doing the demolition work.
The work will begin sometime in March.
“We’ve been doing demo in here ourselves — city crews — and we have exhausted all that we can do with the equipment we have,” said Kyle.
The next stage in the project is the demo work.
“The architects are working on what our next phase will be,” after the demolition, he said.
Once the demo work is completed and paid for, the city will have $1 million in funds for the project.
“We’ll see how far that takes us, and then we’ll still be applying for grants and different things,” said Kyle. “It will take some time and money to finish it, but we’ll get there.”
The sisters are excited for the next phase of life for the building that once felt like their home away from home.
“We just call her the Grand Old Lady, and she’s coming back and we couldn’t be prouder,” said Kerr. “She deserves to be saved.”
Grey added, “This Grand Old Lady has waited quite a while to see herself be of use to this community again.”
