The Day’s recent story about the former Capitol Theater on Bank Street in New London provoked emotions of nostalgia and hopelessness. Nostalgia for what once was a vibrant, beautiful theater and movie palace in the heart of a downtown retail center bustling with activity. Hopelessness because the challenge of restoring buildings like the Capitol, laid to waste by time and inattention, is so overwhelming.

But the city cannot indulge nostalgia. It has to create a forward-thinking vision for a 21st century downtown that is rebuilt around a new generation of young adults and a boomer generation of empty nesters both seeking places with entertainment and cultural options.

And the city cannot wallow in hopelessness. New London’s charm, what once set it apart and can so again, is an inviting urban architecture and sense of history. Razing any of the buildings that now stand chockablock one against the next would leave ugly fissures in the streetscape.

Our hard look at the history of the Capitol and its status was the latest product of our CuriousCT initiative. This feature on www.theday.com gives us another way to find out what is of concern to our readers. Readers can submit questions and have a chance to vote on which they want pursued.

Rising to the top in a recent online poll was the question from Kathy Watford of Uncasville: “What’s going on with the Capitol Theater?”

Copy Desk Chief John Ruddy, who occasionally steps out of his role repairing copy to do some reporting, particularly on local history, took aim at the question.

Ruddy’s reporting showed how the colorful history of the Capitol traced the course of the downtown it inhabited. It was busy and relevant from its opening in the early 1920s through the 1950s when the downtown was the center of retail and commerce. In the 1960s it began to slip in maintenance and attendance as the downtown’s fortunes declined in the face of suburban flight and shopping center sprawl.

By the mid-1970s the doors were closed, not to reopen since.

The current owner, Westport-based developer Eric Hamburg, operating under the hopeful sounding moniker Industrial Renaissance LLC, bought the Capitol in 2016 for $68,000. It is one of several downtown properties, all in various states of disrepair, which he plans to redevelop.

Hamburg did not return The Day’s calls concerning the recent story or for this editorial. That’s discouraging. As a major downtown investor, he needs to be heard from and visible.

In the past, Hamburg talked of the potential reuse of the theater for apartments, eateries and an indoor fresh-food market, but these appear to be broad brainstorming ideas. What is needed are concrete plans based on structural and architectural assessments and with a price tag. Any plan to rescue the Capitol or some part of it will cost many millions of dollars.

Restoring it as a performing arts palace would not make sense. Using a nonprofit model, one of the city's grand old theaters, the Garde Arts Center, was saved and has become a major focus of the city’s arts and cultural life. Its popular Winter Cinema Series, offering award-winning and nominated films, gives patrons the chance to experience that old movie palace experience, but with modern audio and video clarity.

That niche is filled.

Felix Reyes, director of development and planning for New London, says such massive restoration projects require a combination of resources, including historical grants, tax credits and often government matching funds. The return on investment is not enough to utilize purely private investment.

But necessary first is a vision and that is lacking.

It can be done. The Wauregan Hotel in Norwich, which opened in 1855 and in 1860 hosted Abraham Lincoln during his campaign for presidency, once appeared headed for the wrecking ball. But a $20 million investment, using a packaging of funding like the type Reyes references, allowed for its historically faithful redevelopment as an apartment building.

While the results have been mixed — the building has had its financial struggles — the Wauregan was saved. It is good to remember that idea once seemed as far-fetched as restoring the Capitol.