COHOES — Two recent grants of $500,000 each in public funding are considered integral components of Cohoes Music Hall’s $5 million multi-part restoration project. The city-owned building is gearing up for a festive year of 2024, celebrating the building’s 150th anniversary of opening and 50th anniversary of its reopening after the city took over and restored the building half a century ago .
District 108 includes Cohors, and city business owner and former Cohors Mayor, Rep. John T. Macdonald III, arranged the latest $500,000 in public assistance from state and city facilities grants. The award was announced in the hall on Thursday. This complements his $500,000 recently awarded by the State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Service as a participant in the “Heritage Areas” program.
The two grants, along with a $300,000 commitment from the city, will soon take the first steps to seal and restore the building’s distinctive mansard roof and the flat roof behind it. increase. During heavy rains, roofs leak so badly that buckets and other containers in attics and elsewhere have to be emptied manually, said Garry Nathan, urban engineer at Cohoes. Dormers, gutters and decorative brick walls have suffered water damage as maintenance has been postponed for so long, and these will be repaired during the restoration, said Nathan and Theresa Bourgeois, his director of city operations. says.
In an announcement Thursday, Mayor Bill Keeler praised McDonald’s commitment to music halls.
“He is a long-time advocate for this local resource and his support of our conservation efforts will help ensure that it lasts for future generations to enjoy and benefit from,” Keeler said. said.
The second portion of the music hall restoration and upgrade is $3 million and will transform the facility into an energy efficient, carbon neutral building. This is done or has already been done at his two other historic buildings owned by the city, City Hall and Cohorts Public. Libraries; Last year, the New York State Department of Energy Research and Development awarded the city a $1.3 million carbon-neutral community economic development grant for green energy transitions. Finally, at least $500,000 will be spent on him to restore the music hall’s decorative ceiling and replace the last window in the music hall, Bourgeois said. The window replacement began a few years ago with another $750,000 project that included installing new sound and lighting equipment in the theater and installing a vertical marquee on the side of the 53 Remsen St. building. The ground floor is the city’s visitor center with meeting areas and educational displays. Also upgraded.
Founded in 1874 by two businessmen on the site of a magnificent building destroyed by fire, Cohorse Music Hall opened in 1874 with the production ‘London Assurance’. Boucicaut. Its characters include Sir Harcourtley, described as “his fifty-seven year old idiot who is educated”, his self-righteous son, an equally licentious companion of his son named Dazzle, Lord Courtley’s ‘s 18-year-old fiancée, and a “riding” lady his gay his spanker. Virago. “
The music hall’s theater, which had been used for performances for about 30 years, had been closed since 1906, partly for safety reasons, Mr Bourgeois said. The city, which he took control of in 1968, underwent its first complete renovation and reopened in 1974, again with the production of ‘London Assurance’.
Owen Smith, producer and artistic director of the Playhouse Stage Company, which is headquartered in the music hall and plays there as part of a contract to manage the entire venue’s operations, said he had never read “London Assurance.” . Based on that description, he cautiously allowed production to be “considered” as part of the 2024 reopening.
