A public / private partnership is reviving and renovating a historic downtown community building that will provide meeting and event space for the community. Originally called the Loveland Community Building, the Art Moderne style theater was built as one of several Works Progress Administration projects in Loveland during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” unemployment relief program.
The building was renamed the Pulliam Community Building in 1988 in honor of David T. Pulliam, president of the Loveland First National Bank, and his wife Lillian Pulliam, who in 1936 donated the building’s land and $20,000 toward its construction. Members of the nonprofit Pulliam Community Building Foundation have worked tirelessly to secure funding to refurbish the building. In 2017 the Loveland City Council provided $1.5 million — via a 3-to-1 funding match to the $500,000 provided by the Pulliam Community Building Foundation — to bring the auditorium up to modern code requirements. Additionally, the project received $326,000 from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. Phase one of the restoration, expected to begin in 2019, includes updates to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and the addition of an elevator and bathrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
