The bones of the building are more than a century old. The paint is brand new, bright white and spare, and on Monday afternoon it was full of actors, city staff and credit union employees trying to describe what a room can do for a town.
The Eglin Federal Credit Union Arts and Education Center opened this week at 189 Main Street, in what City Manager Jessica Leavins called “the heart of a historic hotel on downtown Main Street.”
“We are excited to get to revitalize it, bring — breathe some new life into it,” Leavins said, “and it’s going to be a partnership between the city of Crestview and some of our amazing local nonprofits.”
That partnership is the whole model. The city owns the front door; Eglin Federal Credit Union is the anchor partner underwriting programming; and a rotating cast of local nonprofits will fill the calendar. Leavins listed the groups already signed on: The Hub Comprehensive Autism Center, as well as Grow Your Gift, the Panhandle Rebels robotics team; Stagecrafters, the Fort Walton Beach-based community theater company; and the Crestview library, which plans to run classes out of the space.
“We are hoping to grow that list,” she said.
A “third space” with a stage in its future
Neko Stubblefield of Eglin Federal Credit Union framed the center as the next step in a relationship that goes back several years.
“In 2021, in partnership with the city of Crestview, kind of identifying opportunities for youth — we had the Eglin Federal Credit Union skate park,” Stubblefield said. “So again, in conversation with the city of Crestview: what can we do in terms of arts and education?”
The answer is a building with two distinct halves. One room is set up for tutoring and financial wellness sessions run by the credit union. The larger room — the white, gallery-like space that draws the eye as soon as you walk in — is built for the arts.
“If you are interested in acting and those sort of things, you’ll be able to come and get your acting chops on here at the Eglin Federal Credit Union Arts and Education Center,” Stubblefield said. “We need a space, and this is unlike anything really in the tri-county area,” she said. “I don’t know of any other space that’s dedicated to arts and education. So this is going to be a huge and unique hub where children of all ages — because we’re going to have some adult sessions in here as well.”
Build-out isn’t finished. Stubblefield said decorating will continue, and the Emerald Coast Science Center is expected to bring science activities into the mix. The single most-asked question on the floor Monday — where the stage will go — does not yet have an answer.
Stubblefield’s closing pitch was about price: “What’s really neat about it is it’s all free. So again, just feeling a need and a resource in the community. So come on out and join us.” She pointed people to the City of Crestview’s website for the events calendar as programming ramps up.
Why North County keeps asking for this
For the theater people in the room, the center answers a geography problem that has shaped their lives for years.
Lainey Caswell has performed with Stagecrafters for about a year and has lived in Baker her whole life.
“We’ve always been wanting to have a place to have shows and productions and whatnot in the north end of the county,” she said. “So this is a very, very special day for a lot of us.”
She did the math out loud. “Down to Fort Walton from Baker, it’s about 50 minutes. To the college down in Niceville, it’s about 40, 45 minutes depending on traffic,” Caswell said. “Most rehearsals, they’re in the evening, six to nine o’clock at night, and so that means you wouldn’t get home until 10, 10:15. If you have to get up early for work or school the next morning, and you’re in the north end of the county, you’re kind of out of luck.”
The gap isn’t only about drive time. “Baker School, they have no theater department at all,” Caswell said. “They need more spaces to have productions like this. So having the space up here in the north end of the county will be used a lot better for schools. And if theaters wanted to get started here in Crestview, they could.”
Her hope for the building is broad. “There are plenty of theaters in the area, plenty of groups and community members who can use this space for music or performance, maybe eventually dance, piano, just about anything performing arts related.”
A hedge against losing stages elsewhere
Melissa Raulerson, vice president of the Stagecrafters board, works across the street from the new center. She described a company whose talent pool already stretches north.
“Our actors come from all over, from Panama City to Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach itself, which is where we’re located. A lot of our actors live in Crestview,” Raulerson said. “So we want to reach more people, more kids, and just have a bigger and different space to do black box theater, cabarets, and have a different feel to what we can offer.”
Raulerson was careful not to describe the local arts scene as struggling — she counted Mosaic, Emerald Coast Theatre Company in Miramar Beach, the Storyhouse Niceville and area high school programs among the region’s assets. But she pointed to a looming problem.
“A lot of us are going to lose our performance space,” she said. “As that auditorium in Fort Walton potentially will be torn down in the foreseeable future, we need a place to go.”
Population is the other half of the argument. “The military — they’re building out more homes. We have more that are PCSing here now that the PCS freeze is over, and that brings more families,” Raulerson said. “A lot of your families come more north. They come more to Crestview because of the land that’s available, and just because it is less expensive to be in this area. So we definitely need something to support that growth.”
“We need it here”
Deborah Dodge, who works for the city and sits on the Stagecrafters board, has spent years driving to Niceville and Fort Walton Beach to act. She came to Monday’s opening with a plan for what she’d do with the room.
“I think it’s just wonderful, because in Crestview we don’t have live theater, and I do live theater in Niceville and Fort Walton, and we need it here,” Dodge said. “It’s really great because this facility will be geared not just to the arts, but to education, culinary, STEM, science. What I think is really important is that we’re gearing towards nonprofits. So it’s exciting. I’m just thrilled — and I want to work with little kids and teach them how to act.”
Asked her favorite part of the building, Dodge laughed. “I don’t know. The whole place, I guess.”
For Leavins, the center is less a new venture than an extension of services the city already runs — youth and adult sports through recreation, classes and collections through the library.
“This is using a partnership with the bank, which is an amazing community partner for us,” she said. “Eglin Federal Credit Union is always here to support not just our military families, but in this case, all of our families, to make sure that there’s a comprehensive education for our local children.”
