Theaters, music venues, libraries, bookstores and other cultural institutions were among Vermont businesses damaged by floodwaters last week. Hundreds of artists have been forced to pivot as business and building owners around the state assess damage and start to rebuild.

Seven Days visited eight organizations in Montpelier. While some are forced to remain closed for now, others are doing what they do best: providing entertainment. Those include Lost Nation Theater, which suffered flood damage itself.

Like engineers and building contractors, artists play a role in flood recovery. "The arts — especially theater and music — help people process deep-seated emotions," said Kathleen Keenan, Lost Nation's producing artistic director. "And we need an outlet for that right now."

Lost Nation lost its 35-year-old collection of props and costumes, as well as use of its performance space — Montpelier City Hall's auditorium — but its show will go on. (Read on for details.) "If we can just pull this off and offer a little sunshine, a little laughter, a little raising of the spirits," Keenan said, "we will have done our jobs."

— M.A.L.

Months, Not Weeks

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main St., Montpelier

Floodwaters spared the estimated 70,000 books in the collection, but Montpelier's historic Kellogg-Hubbard Library is expected to remain closed for months because water filled the basement, which houses virtually all building systems.

Electrical, fire alarm, security, internet, telephone, heating and air-handling systems all have been damaged, library director Carolyn Picazio said. Completely destroyed are 15,000 books that were part of the library's ongoing book sale, which raises $500 to $700 for the library each month. Staffers moved the books off lower shelves and stacked furniture from the basement community room on tables in anticipation of flooding, Picazio said, but "we were not anticipating eight feet of water."

Crews finished pumping the estimated 180,000 gallons out of the 4,000-square-foot basement on Thursday. The Italian Renaissance building with two-foot-thick Dummerston granite exterior walls has operated continuously as a library since 1896. It has survived four floods — 1927's claimed most of the collection — and a basement fire, Picazio said.

Curbside pickup and other programs have gone on uninterrupted or are expected to resume at the end of the week when, Picazio said, "patrons should be able to do everything except browse the stacks."

— M.A.L.

Coming Soon

Capitol Showplace, 93 State St., Montpelier

Movies will return, but not for some time at Capitol Showplace, a five-screen Montpelier movie theater that sustained extensive damage. Its sister theater in Barre, Paramount Twin Cinema, had water only in its vestibule and is expected to reopen this weekend.

The theaters are operated by a family company that includes Fred Bashara and his four children. The company sold Capitol Plaza Hotel & Conference Center, across the street, four days before the flood.

Daughter Cyndy Golonka oversees the theaters. On Wednesday night, she and Bashara were working on cleanup at Capitol Showplace, more than 12 hours after they had started that morning. The scene epitomized the "many hands make light work" adage, as Golonka's husband, five children, several of the kids' friends and 25 members of the Vermont Mountaineers baseball team ripped out the last of the carpet and carted popcorn and damaged family photos to the curb.

The Capitol survived Tropical Storm Irene unscathed, but water in the theater last week was 18 inches deeper than it was in a 1992 flood caused by an ice jam, Golonka said. It submerged the seats and lapped at the bottom of movie screens. Every theater in the Capitol will undergo a complete renovation.

The family never considered closing permanently, Golonka said, and she appeared upbeat. "You have to be positive," she said. "It is what it is ... It's a freak of nature. You take the good with the bad, and you turn it around the best you can."

— M.A.L.

Deep Dive

Charlie-O's World Famous, 70 Main St., Montpelier

With the power still off, the inside of Vermont's oldest bar was dark and wet. Sunlight streaking in from the front door gave the whole scene a decidedly pre-Industrial Revolution feel. Volunteer after volunteer moved through the murk, scrubbing walls, removing debris and taking inventory.

Charlie-O's World Famous, which has the words "A dive for nice people" emblazoned on the awning over its front door, holds a special place in the hearts of Montpelier's drinkers, music fans and pool players. They were out in force after the storm, helping clean up a space that has weathered more than a few floods in its time.

"The damage is significant, but we're OK," reported senior bartender Brandy Bushey, who is also Charlie-O's booking and social media manager. She expressed hope that the bar's beloved pinball machines, sent away to be cleaned, would be fine. The pool tables, still sitting in the center of the barroom, will also need professional cleaning, but they're low on the priority list at this point.

Bushey pointed out that, while the bar and most of downtown Montpelier have a lot of work ahead, the response from the city's people has been incredible.

"This community is a force," Bushey said. "Watching the whole town show up and rebuild today was something I've never seen before. It was absolutely beautiful."

— C.F.

Staying Afloat

The Savoy Theater, 26 Main St., Montpelier

The downstairs screening room at the 42-year-old Savoy Theater flooded, but the upstairs "is thankfully dry," the art-house cinema reported on its website. "We hope to show movies upstairs again soon."

Floodwaters dealt the latest blow to the theater, which was already suffering lost revenue due to declining ticket sales, the departure of the Green Mountain Film Festival (which is due to return to the Savoy in March) and the relocation of Vermont College of Fine Arts to Colorado, according to a GoFundMe page organized by Savoy owner James O'Hanlon. As of Monday morning, the Savoy had raised about $20,000 of its $30,000 goal. In addition to flood damage, the art house needs a new ventilation system and predicts that its aging main projector and server will soon need replacement.

O'Hanlon was a Savoy projectionist when he bought the theater seven years ago. "I consider the theater somewhat of a public trust and a cultural resource in this area," he told Seven Days at the time.

Joe Ryan, who made a $100 donation, wants to see that continue. He commented on GoFundMe, "The Savoy premieres some of the most highly rated international films that get played nowhere else in Vermont."

— M.A.L.

Party Crasher

Bear Pond Books, 77 Main St., Montpelier

Bear Pond Books was going to celebrate its 50th birthday with a party on August 5. That's unlikely to happen, co-owner Claire Benedict said on Thursday, but if all goes well, the store will be reopened by then. Benedict and store manager Cora Kelly aim to be back in business "in a couple of weeks."

"'Couple' is nice and vague," Kelly joked. The store is currently taking online orders for books and gift cards.

Floodwater filled the store's basement and reached three and a half feet on the main floor, destroying all bookcases, display fixtures, the main server and about 20 percent of the inventory. The beloved creaky floors — customers commented on them every day, Kelly said — buckled and have been ripped out.

"We have a creaky floor soundtrack to play on opening day, whenever that may be!" Benedict reported in a text update.

Wet books were discarded after their covers were torn off so the store could track the loss and reorder. Children's room manager Jane Knight took the covers home and laid them out in her barn to dry.

The basement contained little of value, although it was "very, very full," Benedict said. The city's Christmas decorations were down there because Benedict had offered to store them when she was on a decorating committee years ago. Staffers and a brigade of volunteers — including a family who had moved from Oregon two days earlier — helped haul it all out.

The store may reschedule the birthday celebration, Benedict said: "I feel like we're gonna need a party at the end of this."

— M.A.L.

Future Unclear

Buch Spieler Records, 27 Langdon St., Montpelier

Piles of debris lined the sidewalk on Langdon Street outside Buch Spieler Records. Racks to hold the store's once-robust inventory of vinyl were stacked side by side, being sprayed down by shop employees. As for the records themselves, they lay on the sidewalk beside the garbage, covered in tarps like the body at a crime scene. Water trickled down the piles of ruined vinyl.

"Everything is gone, record-wise," co-owner and operator Knayte Lander said. "For the first time in — God, I don't even know — I don't even own a copy of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours."

Inside the shop, things were no better. The power of the flood had warped the wood floors until they buckled, bunching up like concertina doors.

"It's still so early, but I don't see how we can open back up in this space," Lander said as he surveyed the damage inside. "Climate change is fucking real, so this is going to happen again. But we'll find our way. We'll be back."

— C.F.

Ad-Libbing

Lost Nation Theater, 39 Main St., Montpelier

Anything can happen in live theater. So when floodwaters rushed into the basement of Montpelier City Hall, forcing closure of the building where Lost Nation Theater performs, the company made a quick pivot.

Lost Nation's costume and props archive, stored in the basement of Walgreens next door, is a total loss. The basement of its artistic directors' Elm Street home flooded. But all is not lost at Lost Nation. Vermont College of Fine Arts gave the company rehearsal space, and the Barre Opera House offered its stage at a deep discount.

The Addams Family, originally scheduled for 15 performances in the 150-seat City Hall auditorium, will do two shows in the 650-seat Barre Opera House: Saturday, July 22, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 23, at 2 p.m.

With $40,000 in direct expenses and a 60-member cast and crew, the musical is one of the 46-year-old company's largest productions. Lost Nation emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic "smartly," producing artistic director Kathleen Keenan said. "We kept things small. This was our year to come back."

Buy tickets at lostnationtheater.org.

— M.A.L.

Around the Bend

Bent Nails Bistro, 4 Langdon St., Montpelier

Many feared the worst for restaurant and music venue Bent Nails Bistro, which sits right on the bank of the Winooski River. "It sounds weird to say it like this, but we got lucky in some ways," co-owner Charis Churchill said as she stood in the center of the bar, wearing mud boots and holding a soaked, muddy broom.

Water-damaged garbage filled the sidewalk in front of the venue. Inside, though, the power was still on, making the destruction all too visible. Beneath Churchill's feet, the wood planks were ripped up along a straight column to the door, showing where the water entered.

A soaked Epiphone SG electric guitar lay on the floor in its case. Churchill and her cleanup crew had already scrubbed away much of the muck and set the dirt- and grime-streaked chairs back up facing the stage, as if expecting a show to start at any moment. Several fans set on high countered the smell of mildew and mud that seemed to permeate the whole city.

"It's too soon to know the next move," Churchill said. "I think we're all just waiting for more answers to move forward. We'll need help cleaning up and figuring it all out. But we'll be back."

— C.F.

In the Same Boat

Though far from comprehensive, here's a look at how other Vermont arts and entertainment venues and outposts are doing after the flood.

Unadilla Theatre, Calais: The gravel road in front of Unadilla's two rustic theaters washed out on Monday, but the company canceled only Thursday's performances. A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Pirates of Penzance played on Friday. They finished their runs on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, and at least 100 patrons came each day, company founder Bill Blachly said. Mozart and Salieri will run for four performances, August 3 to 12, to close the season. The road has one lane open, "and you look into canyons on either side," Blachly said. "The road is perfectly awful, but people, crazy as they are, came up it ... Anyway, they seemed to have a good time."

Weston Theater Company, Weston: Water filled the basement of Weston Playhouse, and it remains closed. Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story finished its run with three concert versions of the musical on Saturday and Sunday at Burr & Burton Academy in Manchester. The cast performed a live stream benefit concert on Friday. What the Constitution Means to Me opened two days late, on Sunday, at the company's second stage, Walker Farm, which was undamaged. It will run, as scheduled, through July 30. Fingers are crossed for Singin' in the Rain, scheduled to open at the Playhouse on August 3.

The Book Garden, Montpelier: Brad Carey and his wife bought this cozy, narrow, 20-year-old State Street store in January 2020, just before COVID-19 hit. They've had "a rough few years, but we're doing OK," Carey said following the flood. A reopening date is tough to pin down. "We're thinking maybe three weeks," he wrote in a follow-up text on Saturday. "No clue though."

Vermont History Museum, Montpelier: The museum, located in the Pavilion building next to the Statehouse, remains closed, though its collection stayed dry. It no longer maintains any collections in the building's basement.

Vermont History Center, Barre: Located in the former Spaulding school on Washington Street, the history center "stayed relatively dry and all collections are safe," according to the Vermont Historical Society, which operates the center and the Vermont History Museum. Both remain closed due to flood damage in the area.

Studio Place Arts, Barre: Floodwaters damaged building system equipment in the basement, but the galleries, studios and classroom on the three floors above stayed dry. The earliest date that galleries in the nonprofit visual arts center will reopen is Wednesday, July 26. Turn to page 48 for a pre-flood review of the SPA group show "You're Absolutely Spineless."

Simon Pearce, Quechee: The glassblowing company's flagship location on the Ottauquechee River remains closed after floodwaters inundated its glass production facility, hydro facility and restaurant prep kitchen. The site also includes a retail store. Phone orders can be picked up curbside there. On Saturday the company posted a photo on Facebook of one of its Ascutney Double Old-Fashioned glasses that had been found on the floor after the flood, muddy but in perfect condition. Said the post: "Like Vermont, our glass is strong." Despite nearby flooding, the company's Windsor location was unaffected and remains open.

"Natarajasana," Winooski: A popular statue erected on a concrete wall in the Winooski River outside the Chace Mill in Burlington was swept away in the flooding last Monday, according to social media reports and the Burlington Free Press. Vegan restaurant Pingala Café, a Chace Mill tenant and neighbor of Laughing River Yoga, purchased "Natarajasana" in 2013, according to artist Tyler Vendituoli's website. The sculpture, of a woman in a natarajasana yoga pose, stands five feet, five inches tall and is built from stainless steel forks, knives and spoons. The statue has reportedly been seen close to the Winooski Dam but had not been recovered as of press time.