Spring Theatre

For more than 60 years, the theater building on Main Street in Springhill, LA has stood tall but has also had to endure many hard times through the years. The original theater was constructed in 1946 by the Tri-State Theater Company. It enjoyed several years of success, until a tragic fire destroyed most of the building in 1958. That year, Boyd Adkison purchased the building and began reconstructing.  Boyd was able to reopen to the public in 1959. Unfortunately, Boyd died in 1960 from cancer. Luckily for the Spring, his wife, Bess, ran the theater after her husband's untimely death. Bess remarried and kept the Spring open for 22 more years. The Spring reached the height of its glory days in 1979, when the George Peppard film "Five Days From Home" opened at the Springhill theater. The movie about a man that escapes from a Louisiana prison to be by his ailing son's bed in California was partially filmed in Springhill. The premiere was attended by George Peppard (the movie's director and starring actor). Unfortunately, Bess's death in 1982, brought an end to movies at the Spring for many years. Even after its last movie, the poster for "Lady & the Tramp" still hung outside as a reminder to the public of the brighter days the theater had once hosted. During the 1980s the theater saw brief usage by the church now known as Trinity Worship Center. Following the church's use of the facility, the building remained vacant and in disrepair for over a decade. As the city of Springhill was trying to revamp its Main Street, Jan Willis was concerned about the building. According to Willis, "...we felt the city could not afford to use the taxpayers' money to buy the theater." Fortunately, two men felt the building needed to be saved. In 2001, James Branch and Lamar Smith purchased the building and donated it to the city. While seeking state and federal funding, the city set out to find someone willing to invest time and money to restore an important piece of town history. The theater's luck had finally changed, in 2002 a new partnership between Mike (son of Bess & Boyd Adkison) and Nita Adkison and Adam and Kelli Harris of Center, TX would completely change the face of the theater.