EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) – Since 1921, the Victory Theatre has stood tall in downtown Evansville and now boast a new sign that lights up the block, after a decade of behind the scenes work.
“I thought boy needed a marquee and actually ran into the friends of the Victory from the renovation in 1998 that had actually already started it,” explained Scott Schoenike, executive director for the Victor Theatre. “So we and actually worked with some of them on this project to continue it forward what they had already done with the historic society,” he added.
When Randy Kemp got a job at the Victory Theatre, his main reason was simply to check out more concerts but had no idea how much more history he would learn.
“Victory was in honor of world war one, winning world war one, and to so I thought that was very interesting,” said Randy Kemp, a donor to the new sign. “I started setting that in the venue, in the venue. So I made a donation for this sign and also for the sign that’s on the wall there.”
For Kemp, he said he was happy this moment was finally here.
“The last three years with COVID, the pandemic and the separation to being out here in the public, I’m just happy to be alive and be here,” said Kemp.
Schoenike says he’s hopeful this new sign will continue to shine light on downtown Evansville in more ways than one.
“I think it’s just going to add one more layer to that whole thing,” Schoenike said. “It’s going to change this whole look of that whole area here in downtown. I think that’s kind of continues to make this downtown area just more vibrant.”
