Project will help Stambaugh Auditorium light up Youngstown skyline

YOUNGSTOWN — Stambaugh Auditorium will light up the Youngstown skyline once an exterior construction project is completed in December.

A groundbreaking ceremony on Monday marked the beginning of the project.

Mark Gasser, Stambaugh Auditorium board president, said after years of projects inside the auditorium — such as the organ restoration and work in the concert hall and ballroom — "Now, we turn our attention to the exterior."

The exterior work is a restoration project and not aimed at making the Stambaugh look completely different, said Matt Pagac, Stambaugh chief executive and operating officer.

"The idea here is to maintain the historical look of the facilities so that's what we're going to do," Pagac said.

The project plans have been in the works since 2012. Pagac said the drive for the project came after engineers looked at the exterior's structure and determined it needed to be fixed within the next 15 years.

Denise Holt, the architect for the project, said when examining the exterior for the project, parts of the exterior were found to be structurally unrepairable.

The limestone from the main stairs and other pieces will be salvaged, cleaned and reused for the lower set of stairs, Holt said. The main stairs will be built with new limestone.

Some parts of the project include replacing the monumental staircase and promenade, adding handicapped accessibility from the promenade to the Stambaugh Garden and adding exterior lighting.

The concrete in front of the building will be restored to the pattern from when the auditorium was first built in 1926. The space will not only be the main entrance of the building but also an area to host events.

The entire exterior will also be cleaned and repointed for the first time.

"The building has never been cleaned in its 96-year history," Pagac said.

Pagac said people in Youngstown can expect a much brighter building when the project is completed. The construction includes adding spotlights and uplights to illuminate the buildings in different colored lights, similar to the Tower City building in Cleveland.

"It'll be part of the skyline from downtown," Pagac said, adding that people will be able to see the building from I-680 while approaching downtown or from the south side of Youngstown.

The $4.1 million project is expected to be completed in December.

The auditorium has received about $3.2 million in donations from local foundations for the construction. About $1.3 million has also been committed to the project through the State of Ohio Capital Budget appropriation.

Some of the donors for the project include:

• The Youngstown Foundation: $750,000;
• Hine Memorial Fund and the Monday Musical Fund: $250,000;
• The Frank and Pearl Gelbman Foundation: $250,000;
• Ward Beecher and Florence Simon Beecher Foundation from Huntington Trust: $250,000;
• John S. and Doris M. Andrews Memorial Fund of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley: $150,000;
• J. Ford Crandall Foundation: $60,000;
• Thomases Family Endowment of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation: $50,000

State Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, said the past year with the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for artists.

"Anything that we can do in our communities to support and hold them up is everything that we should be doing and it's positive," Lepore-Hagan said.

The construction also helps to preserve Youngstown's heritage and understand the importance of these buildings in the community, she noted.

"We've been watching how it's been progressing, and we're so thrilled to see an anchor to just help the rest of the community keep evolving and growing," Lepore-Hagan said.

Overview and updates of the project can be found on the Stambaugh Auditorium website. The page also includes a live stream of the construction.

This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 4:11 AM with the headline "Project will help Stambaugh Auditorium light up Youngstown skyline."