Performing arts center in Wellsboro progresses
By BRYAN G. ROBINSON Sun-Gazette CorrespondentArticle Photos
Architects with Robert A. Lack Architecture and Design Inc. of Lewisburg made a presentation on the proposed center to a packed house of Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce members at a Tuesday meeting at Penn Wells Hotel.
The project, estimated to cost from $10 million to $12 million, includes about an acre of land on the corner of Main and Central avenues that presently houses the Native Bagel, a warehouse, the former Davis Furniture store, the former Good News Bookstore and a vacant lot that once housed the Lamplighter Inn, which was destroyed by fire in 1980.
The property represents about 18 percent of the downtown, architect Robert A. Lack said.
The venue would offer a 430-seat performance hall, similar to the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg, which seats 450, Lack said, and a 155-seat black box theater. In addition, space would be available for retail stores, including the Native Bagel, owned by Sue Cummings. The restaurant’s building would be torn down but the business would relocate during the renovation and construction process.
“We won’t be closing the Native Bagel,” said Scott Bastian, chairman of the center’s site committee.
Chamber members asked questions about parking and sustainability. Lack said the firm had done a macro-analysis of the parking situation, which would be sufficient on Saturdays and evenings when events would be held.
He also said the center’s board had employed Rob Steele, executive director of the Williamsport Community Arts Center, to develop an operational budget.
“The operational budget does not rely on ticket sales,” said Lack, but on rental of retail space in the building.
Asked when the project would break ground, Lowell Coolidge, president of the Deane Center for the Performing Arts Inc., said, “We were hoping late fall, but it’s looking more like a year from now.”
The center is named for Harold and Ivah Deane, whose estate has provided about $1 million in seed money, with the rest of the funds to come from a combination of local fundraising, grants and loans, according to Coolidge. Harold died in 1998 and Ivah in 2001, he said.
“Harold and Ivah were very modest, humble people and never boasted about money,” said Carla Benson-Jungquist, vice president of the organization and the Deanes’ grandniece. “They were just very down-to-earth, caring and compassionate, especially compassionate about Wellsboro.”
She and Coolidge are co-executors of the Deane estate.
The Deanes were generous contributors to the Gmeiner Center and Green Free Library, Coolidge said.
“They saw the success of that center and, not having any children, they wanted to carry that idea forward,” he said.
Benson-Jungquist said Ivah enjoyed going to Hamilton-Gibson productions.
“Ivah and I talked about that it would be nice if Hamilton-Gibson had a place to perform,” she said. “Then it just evolved from there.”
That evolution, which has expanded to include many other groups besides Hamilton-Gibson, started with a feasibility study. It escalated with the purchase of the former Davis Furniture building and surrounding property for about $765,000 from Citizens & Northern Bank in spring 2006, when owner Beech Davis died.
A non-profit organization, the Deane Center for the Performing Arts Inc., was formed with a 15-member board. Former Chester County Commissioner Dick Bartlett was hired as executive director in April 2007.
Interviews were conducted between December 2006 and April 2007, with more than two dozen individuals and organizations, including Hamilton-Gibson, Endless Mountain Music Festival, the Wellsboro Area School District and many others. Several of their needs were incorporated into the floor plans, Lack said.
Board members also toured 17 comparable theaters in Pennsylvania and New York, including the Williamsport Community Arts Center.
Design work began last summer, with exterior development beginning last September. All plans must be approved by the borough’s historical and architecture review board and planning commissions.
“We’re not finished, but we’re pretty close,” Lack said.
For Benson-Jungquist, the proposed center will bring a close to a piece of family history. Harold’s father owned a photography shop in the former Davis building, she said.
“Everything’s come full circle,” Benson-Jungquist said.
