BILLINGS — On Wednesday morning, the downtown Babcock Theatre's ceiling collapsed around 1:30 a.m., closing the theater until further notice.
According to Matt Blakeslee, who manages the Babcock, no personnel were harmed during the collapse. He says most of the debris fell on top of the balcony section.
"Our biggest concern and the reason we're not putting a timeline on it right now is because we want to make sure it's safe," said Blakeslee on Friday.
Blakeslee says he doesn't know the damage cost, but he expects it will range from hundreds of thousands to millions on the 118-year-old building.
"I think the hardest part for us right now is that we had months of programming. Whether that's event rentals, people coming in to use this space or things that we wanted to do ourselves, we have just had to take them off the books at this point," he said. "As far as when we can start putting things back on the books, we have no clue."
According to Blakeslee, there have been plans for many renovations of the theater, including safety rails on the balcony and the removal of a crumbling brick chimney. He says that the recent collapse has expedited the need for these improvements.
For more information or to support the theater during renovations, click this link.
