Athena’s Gem, Inc, is a nonprofit, 501c(3) tax exempt organization with a purpose and goal of renovating the 1901 Gem Theatre building located in downtown Athena, Oregon. After two decades, the Gem will be finished in 2025 and plans to open in October, the exact twentieth anniversary of the project. The seats on the main floor are from the 1925 Bagdad Theatre in Portland, while the seats in the ba
lcony were originally in the Pendleton Cosy Theatre that showed the first moving pictures in Umatilla County in 1906. The stage has enough space for forty musicians. There is also an orchestra pit, fly space and a 1921 Wurlitzer 18 rank theatre pipe organ. Gem will be capable of hosting musical concerts, live theatre performance and film. Star Saloon, in the adjacent space, is part of the facility. It is built around a historic saloon back and front bar that serves as the concessions area. Star Saloon also houses the facility restrooms, a small commercial kitchen and dedicated space in Athena for Hodaka motorcycles assembled in Athena between 1964 and 1978. Gem is a Blue Sky and Oregon Energy Trust project that includes a 26Kw solar array on the facility roof. The project has raised $2.2M and over 400 local volunteers have contributed 50,000 hours to the project. Two thirds of the volunteers have been local students age 12-18 years. The Gem is situated in Athena, a community of 1200 surrounded by wheat fields in rural Umatilla County, Oregon.
