a Walker beauty school/salon, a fourth-floor ballroom called the Grand Casino, an auditorium/movie theater, a drugstore, the Coffee Pot restaurant/coffee shop, and various professional offices. The Walker Theater Company, a separate entity from the Walker Manufacturing Company, leased the theater space from the manufacturing company and operated it as a stage/movie theater until the mid-1930s when the theater suffered from financial difficulties and outside managers took over its operation. The building's performance spaces were among the many jazz venues lining Indiana Avenue, but the Walker building is only one still standing. Numerous musicians have performed at the Walker theater, including several Indianapolis natives and jazz musicians such as Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard, and J. J. Johnson, among others. The theater also hosted vaudeville acts and film screenings. During the mid-1950s "the building and its surrounding neighborhood began a gradual decline" as African-American middle-class families began moving to other areas of the city. The theater briefly closed in the 1960s. Preservation and restoration "By the late 1970s the Walker Building stood nearly abandoned" and faced demolition, with only Walker Manufacturing Company remaining housed in the building. A "group of Indianapolis citizens recognized the structure's rich history" and began a project to preserve the aging building. Although the exact date is not known, it is believed that the theater remained closed from 1978 or 1979 until its restoration was completed and it reopened in 1988. The Madam Walker Building Urban Life Center, an incorporated not-for-profit organization that formed in 1979, "purchased the building from the Walker Manufacturing Company and began planning for its restoration" with the intention of reestablishing the facility as a cultural center and encouraging economic enterprise. The site was listed on the Indiana Register of Historic Sites and Structures and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. In 1982 the organization's articles of incorporation were amended to reflect its new name, the Madam Walker Urban Life Center. The first phase of the restoration, which housed offices and the Grand Casino Ballroom, was completed in 1983. A $2.5 million capital campaign raised funds to restore the Walker Theatre with a present-day seating capacity of 935. The influence of African art forms in A'Lelia Walker's original design concept is apparent throughout the restored theatre. Financial support for the restoration came from Lilly Endowment and others donors. In October 1988, the Walker Theatre reopened in the fully restored Walker