CARTERET — The old bakery on Washington Avenue looks tired with its scratched walls, low ceilings, faded colors and cement floors.

But it didn't always look that way. In its hey day, the building was the Ritz Theater, and it was alive with music and entertainment from Vaudeville performers to movies.

Now, the bleak and mundane has begun to fall away as the borough has begun to restore the building to its original glamour and purpose as a theater.

To the surprise of construction crews—and borough officials—when new walls were built to turn it into a sewing factory in 1965, and then a bakery in the 1980s, the original ornate plaster walls and the ornate designs were left intact.

“They put in a drop ceiling and put up walls that stood away from the original plasterwork,” said John Cwikla, the architect in charge of the restoration project. “Even some of the theater curtains are still hanging in some spots.”

The borough purchased the building about two weeks ago. Carteret Mayor Daniel Reiman said the plans are to turn it into a performing arts center, with construction of an addition on one side and a separate movie theater on the other.

“When it was a Vaudeville theater, it had 1,200 seats,” the mayor said. “With the mezzanine and addition we’ve planned, we’re looking at room for 1,500 people.”

The purchase cost $600,000, but, the borough funded 50 percent and the rest came from the Middlesex County Open Space Trust Fund, which also allows the purchase and preservation of historic structures, Reiman said.

The original aqua walls of the theater and its majestic high ceilings of ornately carved plaster covered with gold leaf were revealed when crews began removing the newer walls.

“It’s almost like they knew someday someone would restore this,” said Ted Steckbeck, with Cooke Avenue Developers, the firm the borough has contracted to do many of its restoration and construction projects.

Reiman said the Vallone family, which turned the building into the bakery, had taken him on a tour of the building several years ago, so he knew some of the old theater remained, but “I didn’t know to this detail.”

“I don’t think anybody knew what details were behind the walls,” the mayor said.

A news article from The Carteret Press on Aug. 26, 1927, announces the theater’s plans to open the following week, noting, “it is the first modern theater to be erected in the borough and is up-to-date in every respect.”

The article said music was to be provided by a “huge organ,” but there was also an orchestra pit for live musicians.

Reiman said he doesn’t know how much the entire restoration project will cost ultimately because plans haven’t been finalized, but he said “we’re in the process of creating a non-profit organization to manage the arts district.”

He said the non-profit group will handle raising the funds needed to cover the costs of the restoration and operation of the center.

Cwikla, the architect in charge of the project, said the restoration is off to a fast start.

“We have more to work with here than we usually do (in a historic restoration),” he said.

Reiman said the plans call for the performing arts center to open sometime in 2015.

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