Plans for renovating the second-floor theater in the Phenix Hall building are still edging forward despite COVID-19 and soaring construction costs, even as the state’s historic-preservation group warns that existing theaters need financial help all over New Hampshire.
“We certainly have plans to renovate and restore (Phenix Hall) … turn it into a restaurant. music hall, event center,” said Mark Ciborowski, concerning the performance hall on the second floor of the Main Street building that houses The Works Bakery and the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen at street level. “We’re negotiating certain aspects of it with the city. Obviously, COVID was a big setback.”
It’s been a big setback for everybody. The pandemic ended on-stage performance of all kinds for more than a year, pushing the often-precarious finances of theaters closing to the edge.
This year the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance’s annual “Seven to Save” list, normally devoted to pointing out buildings, bridges and historic objects in danger of falling apart, added a “thematic listing” called New Hampshire’s Historic Theaters because their finances are falling apart.
“Often the architectural gems of their communities, New Hampshire’s theaters have been placed on uncertain footing by the pandemic,” the organization noted in its release.
“Revenue streams that were tenuous even in the best of times dried up as theaters went dark due to COVID; they are now only returning at a trickle,” Concord At-Large Councilor Byron Champlin, a former trustee of the New England Foundation for the Arts, told the group. “Community-wide support is critical to save these cornerstones of our vibrant downtowns.”
Concord contains two examples of renovated theaters – the Capitol Center for the Arts and the Bank of New Hampshire Stage, which opened just in time to be shut by COVID – and several other historic theaters around New Hampshire have been renovated and reopened in recent years, most recently the Park Theatre in Jaffrey. Many are facing financial straits of varying levels, leading to concern that some might shut again.
As for Phenix Hall, Ciborowski has had plans for at least three years to renovate the historic second-story theater.
All theaters are historic to some extent but this one has history to spare. Built in 1855, it is said to have hosted at least two of our most famous presidents: Abraham Lincoln and, after being rebuilt following a fire in 1893, Teddy Roosevelt.
Ciborowski’s plans haven’t changed much since being detailed in a 2018 Monitor article. He wants to build a glass-fronted connector between Phenix Hall and the adjacent CVS, the former site of the Phenix Hotel, to give more room for kitchens and other facilities.
“I hope to do it in the next year or two. Construction costs have gone through the roof with the pandemic, so I’m hoping they back off,” he said.
The work would also involve replacing the existing elevator and stairwell and making such upgrades as a sprinkler system.
“There’s no air conditioning and marginal heat up there,” Ciborowski said. “That will have to change.”
Other sites in the Seven to Save list, which provides support and advice but not funding, are:
■ The Weirs Drive-In and Archaeological Site, Laconia. The largest of three remaining drive-in theaters in New Hampshire stands on land that was heavily used by indigenous people for fishing-related activities.
■Wilder-Holton House, Lancaster, built in 1780 as the first two-story house in Coös County.
■Newington Railroad Depot, built in 1873 and unused for the last 50 years.
■Two Cornish Colony properties: Blow-Me-Down Farm and the Percy MacKaye Home.
■United Baptist Church, Laconia.
