"Now, instead of a ground-breaking ceremony, planned for later this year, there will be a rock-breaking ceremony. With help from professional masons, volunteers will painstakingly remove the building's original fabricated stones from the exterior so they can be reconstructed when the restoration is complete. For some of West Oakland's older generation, who experienced Seventh Street in its heyday, the decision to restore - rather than remodel - is one step toward repairing what was lost."
"'It is sort of a love letter to a legacy,' said Cheryl Fabio, whose documentary film, Evolutionary Blues: West Oakland's Music Legacy, recounts the area's musical history. 'It is some repair - not enough repair - but some repair for what was stolen in places like Seventh Street.' Inside, Session said EBPREC plans to repurpose the building's original wooden walls, painted yellow and orange and long hidden beneath a layer of sheetrock, to use as a decorative backing for the bar and stage."
"In a true act of serendipity, Session said, they uncovered Esther's original stage lights, hidden behind an artificial wall and perfectly positioned where a new stage had already been planned. Standing inside the blackened room with only a headlamp to see by, Session pointed to the conical spotlight covers, their bulbs removed, nestled into the ceiling. 'We were just dumbfounded,' she said. 'What we've realized we need to do is, in some ways - this is a made-up word - but that we need to museumize the whole space.'"
A West Oakland Seventh Street building will undergo a careful restoration involving a rock-breaking ceremony and removal of original fabricated exterior stones for later reconstruction. The project emphasizes restoration over remodeling to help repair cultural losses experienced by older residents. Original interior elements such as painted wooden walls, an antique safe, rolltop desks and other furniture will be repurposed as visible historic textures around the bar and stage. Workers uncovered original stage lights perfectly located for a planned stage. Organizers plan to 'museumize' the space to preserve and showcase its musical and civic history.
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