It’s hard to believe that a town as vibrant and colorful as Eugene has so much of its life stored within the walls of the unassuming churchlike white building on the corner of West 8th Avenue and Lincoln Street. 

In 1975, the WOW Hall faced a moment that would redefine it forever. It was either going to sputter out, or a miracle would have to happen. In true Eugenean fashion, the people wouldn’t let it go down without a fight. The community gathered on its flexible maple wood floor to throw the WOW-A-Thon, a five-day continuous music festival that saved the building. 

On Dec. 5 and 6, WOW-A-Thon II will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the day the WOW Hall was reborn and became the Community Center for the Performing Arts (CCPA). It will feature music from new and legacy acts alike, a storytelling hour and a dance performance from Fermata Ballet Collective. 

Booking coordinator Skyeler Williams says that everyone on the bill for WOW-A-Thon II was chosen based on their relationship with the WOW Hall. “To preserve the spirit, I had carefully thought about those legacy acts, people that have a long, deep running relationship with the hall that may have been at the original WOW-A-Thon, that knew how important it was to preserve this space, that want to come back around and celebrate our golden jubilee.”

WOW Hall came to be when the Eugene chapter of the Woodmen of the World fraternal lodge needed a place to hold their meetings. They bought the property in 1906 and constructed the building in 1932. For years, it was a flourishing dancehall.

By the 1970s, it was a community center primarily rented out for events. In terms of being an artistic cultural hub, Ed Kashin, current CCPA chairman of the board, says that “This place has always been like that from day one.” 

In 1972, owner E. William Mulholland “didn’t really know what to do with the building,” Kashin says. He handed management over to the New Globe Repertory Theater, but records show that the building had fallen into financial ruin and dilapidation. “The building was coming apart. I mean, it really was not in good shape. I remember walking in here, the side door was split,” Kashin says.

Three years later, the WOW Hall was set to be sold and possibly demolished. “At the time, property values were starting to come up,” Kashin says. “It wasn’t on the Historic Register, not at the time. It was just a building that needed a lot of work.”

In response, a group of about half a dozen people gathered together as an officially recognized nonprofit organization called “The Committee to Secure a Westside Community Center for the Performing Arts,” which was soon shortened to the “Community Center for the Performing Arts.” 

On Dec. 2, 1975, Mulholland informed a basement meeting of 130 people that he had decided to get rid of the building, but would agree to sell it to the community for $75,000, so long as they obtained a $10,000 down payment within 13 days.

The WOW-A-Thon began Dec. 10 and everyone who had ever performed at the WOW Hall was invited. It ran for 24 hours a day for five straight days, featuring local artists of all kinds, including musicians, dancers, poets, mimes, theater and juggling.

Marion Sweeney is a current CCPA board member, but when she was 27 she and her roommate took donations at the door. “I just remember staying up day and night, hounding people,” she says, laughing. “Our focus was to get people to feel ownership of the hall.” Despite the building’s age, dilapidation and the amount of work and money it would take to fix it, Kashin says that “Saving it was important, and everybody that was down here at the hall at the time knew that. And that’s why they were here.” 

The festival raised $12,000 and the WOW Hall was saved. 

“Then only a few years later, they paid off the mortgage. And so we own the building free and clear, plus the parking lot behind,” says CCPA Executive Director Patrick Hosfield. Since 1975, the nonprofit’s primary purpose has been to operate and maintain the WOW Hall building. 

“People really do form a connection with this building,” says CCPA membership coordinator David Ferris. “It’s been true throughout its history. You spend time here, it gets in your blood a little bit.” 

Though things have changed over half a century, Ferris says, “it’s still the same people that are running it. People who started out as volunteers, people that grew up coming here. It’s a part of their lives. Those are still the people that run it.”

It is this spirit that is driving WOW-A-Thon II. Williams says that though this festival is not a marathon 120-hour Hail Mary, it intends to honor the original festival and the WOW Hall’s legacy. “We have a storytelling hour. We’re hoping community members come out and share their favorite WOW Hall memories. We’re also collecting a smattering of videos from artists that who performed here over the years that we plan on displaying on the screen in between acts,” he says. 

“In some ways it’s a retrospective, while also honoring what we are now, where we’re going and where we intend to go,” Williams continues. “We’re here to stay.”

 WOW-A-Thon II is 5 pm Friday, Dec. 5, and Saturday, Dec. 6, at WOW Hall, 291 West 8th Avenue. Doors 4 pm. Tickets are $15 general admission, $25 two-day pass and are available at WowHall.org. Free to CCPA members.