By OSSIE BLADINE

“I look at it as a venue with a menu,” said Don Griswald, speaking of The Old Liberty Theater in downtown Ridgefield, which he and his wife Earleen have owned since 1995.

The historic theater is home to the Old Liberty Theater Concert Series, now in its third season, which presents 3 Leg Torso on Feb. 14 and the Lee Highway Band on Feb. 28. The theater remains a concert destination for local favorite acts, up-and-coming bands, Grammy Award-winners and nationally touring musicians.

“It’s one of our favorite places to play,” said Dwaine Bowden of the River City Ramblers. The Ramblers have played the 200-seat Old Liberty four times in the last four years. Bowden said it is one of the few places where you can hear good entertainment in such an intimate environment in a small town setting.

“It’s got its own old charm,” Bowden said. “If you haven’t been, you just need to go see a concert there.”

Griswald speaks with great appreciation for the performers who play the Old Liberty, locals who support live music and businesses who, like Griswald, “realize we’re all in this thing together.” He knows that a good audience turnout helps businesses near the theater and that smaller turnouts still create a unique synergy between the stage, the audience and the performers.

“I always tell the performers, ‘It might not be a big crowd, but it’s always a good crowd,’” Don said. “I think we have a good track record of people walking out happy.”

The concert series has helped validate the Old Liberty’s ability to draw quality entertainment on a consistent basis, and Griswald hopes the quality and reputation continue to grow. A work in progress for Griswald is to secure a grant to bring a popular national act to the Old Liberty for a benefit concert to raise money for the Ridgefield Overlook Park (“perhaps a Lyle Lovett or a Chris Isaac”).

“It would help the park, it would help the city and it would put a feather in the Old Liberty’s cap,” Griswald said.

The Old Liberty is also home to community events and performances, like the upcoming “A Visit with Harriet Tubman” (Feb. 27, part of the Inquiring Minds Program, a collaboration between the theater and the Ridgefield Library), as well as vaudeville shows, movie nights, magic acts, belly dancing classes, open mic nights, private parties and anything else that can be cooked up. Griswald said he likes the idea of eventually holding a film festival at the theater.

“I’ve never wanted it to be just one flavor,” Griswald said.

Before the Griswalds came along, the Liberty Theater laid dormant for most of its existence. It was built in 1946 as a state-of-the-art theater by then-Ridgefield Reflector owner J.R. “Red” Hicks, who built it for his son, Frank, to operate when he returned from action in WWII. When the theater opened on April 26, 1946, it was dedicated in honor of Frank, who died before he could return to his dream theater. The Old Liberty closed in 1956.

Other than a two-year stint in the mid ‘70s, it was used as storage space until Griswald and a couple friends rented it out for Muay Thai boxing in 1993. Two years to the day of signing a rental agreement, the Griswalds bought the theater building. They started a coffee shop business in the front, moved into apartments in the back, and eventually opened up the theater space to the public, this time as the Old Liberty Theater.

“It’s weird to think about what the original dream was for that family, and think it’s only been that type of place of assembly for about 20 years, and about ten of that has been us,” Griswald said. “It’s inspiring in a way.” [VV]

Ossie Bladine is the Editor-in-Chief of The Voice.