Fox restoration gets $1 million

Longtime Spokane patron of the arts Betty Wheeler donated $1 million to the Fox Theater restoration fund, said Peter Moye, president of the Fox board, on Thursday.

The gift, among the largest made to the project, lifts the fund’s total to $15.5 million, with $6.5 million still to go. A total of $22 million is needed to restore the 1931 art deco movie palace and turn it into a performing arts hall and the permanent home of the Spokane Symphony.

Wheeler did not wish to give interviews. However, Fox development director Betsy Godlewski said Wheeler is a lover of music and a lover of the arts and has been interested in the Fox project from the beginning.

“She said she was happy to make this gift and that the more she thinks about it, the happier she gets,” said Godlewski.

“She believes it’s a great community project,” said Moye.

The recent appropriation of $2.5 million by the Washington Legislature gave Wheeler “confidence that this project was on the move,” said Godlewski.

Wheeler has lived in Spokane about 20 years.

Before that, she and her husband, the late Coleman Wheeler Jr., lived in Portland.

Wheeler did make one request with the donation.

“She has asked that the loge and balcony be called the Wheeler Balcony,” said Moye.

The board was happy to grant that request, he said.

Nothing in the way of actual hammering is presently under way in the building, but work is progressing on the architectural plans.

Moye said the gift will allow work to go forward on the final plans so that the project “can get to groundbreaking within the end of the year.”