Sunday, December 11, 2011

Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center, Gardiner

Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center
280 Water Street, Gardiner
Tours are free.  General hours of operation:
Monday-Friday 10am – 6pm
582-7144
Performance schedule online at www.johnsonhall.org
                                                               Johnson Hall, present day
On November 19, I attended a one-man play called “Jimmy Higgins: A Life in the Labor Movement” at Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center in Gardiner.  The performance was held in a 100-seat theater on the first floor of Johnson Hall.  Johnson Hall is a four-story Italianate style brick building which was built as a theater in1864.  It remains the oldest operating theater in Maine.  The current performance space was once the livery stable in 1864.  The original performance space on the third floor is currently un-renovated and unheated. However, the first-floor performance space has regular arts programming all year round.

Circa 1864, Gardiner was a vital industrial hub.  As the northernmost deepwater port on the Kennebec River, there was a steady flow of ships and commerce from the tall ships through the steamboat area.  It was a city bristling with factories, sawmills, manufacturing operations, and of course was a key player in the commercial ice industry.  Gardiner native Benjamin K. Johnson, after returning from California in 1858, bought the Cobbossee Hotel and renamed it The Johnson House.  In March of 1864 Johnson announced his plan to build a building for large gatherings next to his hotel.  In December of 1864 a gala with banquet was held to celebrate the completion of Johnson Hall.  The Gardiner Home Journal noted that there were 500 people in attendance and that the turnout was small due to bad weather.  According to the newspaper of the time the third floor theater with balcony could seat as many as 1,200 people, making it the largest gathering-hall in the state.

 Johnson and his wife Henrietta brought in music, vaudeville, plays, choruses, lectures and all the live entertainment of the time.  They had the first traveling Broadway show “The Black Crook” (tickets cost 35 cents at the time).  The poster (a copy is still on display at Johnson Hall) notes that it had a “carload of scenery” and was “Suitable for Ladies.”  In 1888, the theater was renovated, increasing the size of the stage and decorating the hall elegantly.  At this time it was called the Johnson Opera House. 
                            Circa 1911 postcard with Johnson House at left and Johnson Hall (red brick) at center
Benjamin Johnson died in 1902, leaving Johnson Hall to his wife Henrietta.
In 1909 the building was leased to Dreamland Theater for showing silent movies in addition to live entertainment. With the introduction of the “talkies” in 1929, Henrietta Johnson approved a major renovation to the theater which added a projection booth, a sloped floor, red leather seats, and stepped-up seating in the back. The second floor housed the concession stand and rest-rooms.  It then became a full-time movie venue, which it remained until it closed in 1959. 

A succession of retails shops occupied the first floor of the building starting in the late 1800s.  After the theater closed, the second and third floors became storage for the retail shops on the first floor. 
                                          View from above the stage of Johnson Hall's 3rd Floor Theater
The building was saved from urban-renewal-style destruction in the 1980s by a group of people (one of whom was a direct descendant of city namesake Sylvester Gardiner).  The groups formed a nonprofit with the purpose of bringing performances and arts education to Gardiner and the central Maine region.  They raised $250,000 and renovated the first floor into the current performance space.  The long-term vision is to return the building to its former glory, as a 360-seat theater and conference center.  

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