On Thursday, Oct. 11, Wagner College will rededicate its primary classroom and Main Stage theater building, the newly restored Main Hall. The rededication ceremony is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. on the building’s front steps and will conclude at about 12:15 p.m. with a tour of the first floor, including the refurbished theater and a smart classroom.
Built at a cost of $400,000 and first opened in February 1930, the three-story Collegiate Gothic-style building recently underwent a complete exterior restoration: bricks were replaced or repointed, concrete ornaments corroded by acid rain were recast, a new roof (including new slate shingles) and new energy-efficient windows were installed, and some structural supports were refitted. In addition, clocks built into the front and rear of the buildings but which have not functioned in many years have been returned to working order. The restoration project, which began in April 2011 and is currently in the finishing stages, cost a total of $15 million.
Classrooms, fine art studios, faculty offices, stage and costume shops, and the Main Stage theater were all ready for use when the college opened for the 2012-13 year at the end of August.
Visitors to the theater will notice that a new stage curtain and brand-new seating has been installed. The new, wider seats have more legroom between rows than did the previous configuration. They replace the second-hand seats, bought during a renovation of Broadway’s Schubert Theatre, that had been in use on Grymes Hill for many years.
On May 30, 1929, Wagner College officials and supporters put the building's cornerstone in place. Below, watch a very short film clip taken at that ceremony, featuring Pastor Frederic Sutter, founder of Wagner's Staten Island campus and leader of its Board of Trustees for 40 years.
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