Project seeks to convert former Johnstown church into theater
Visitors to Johnstown currently can tour museums commemorating its disastrous 1889 flood and the history of its immigrant steel and coal workers.
Now a preservation-minded group is hoping to expand those offerings by turning the former St. Columba Catholic Church into a performing arts space that can host, among other things, a drama depicting the fateful lives of Johnstown’s immigrants, such as those who used to worship within its Romanesque brown-brick walls.
The Johnstown-based Steeples Project is hoping to make this dream a reality. It’s a program of the nonprofit group 1901 Church Inc., which purchased three former Catholic churches in 2011 — ethnic parishes close to each other in the gritty historic neighborhood of Cambria City — for $30,000 from the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, which closed them in a consolidation.
The Steeples Project has overseen the renovation of one former church, now used as an event space, and sold a second to a private event-planning group.
Lately it has turned its attention to St. Columba. This week, three theater consultants from North Carolina visited the city and talked with area leaders in the arts, business and government about the feasibility of turning the sanctuary into a space for dramas and other performances.
The visit will form the basis for a business plan, marketing analysis and case statement in
support of the venture.
“We’ve kept them busy trying to get a good feel for this community and what we’re up against, the challenges of converting this building into a good, effectively functioning theater,” said Dave Hurst, the Steeples Project manager. “It’s exciting to see these people come in and take a look at what we’re doing. They’re being pretty affirming.”
The Steeples Project is separately working with consultants in other areas, such as the stage design and building renovations. It’s too early to estimate the projected costs for renovations and operations, Mr. Hurst said.
One of the consultants visiting this week, Betsey Horth, executive director of the Southeastern Theatre Conference of Greensboro, N.C., said converting the church into a performing arts space is one of the best ways to preserve the architectural integrity of the century-old structure.
The consultants met with several Johns town area arts groups that would want to use the space, she added. “If we get it right, if they get it right, you bet they’ll be able to fill this place,” she said.
Mr. Hurst said that a longtime dream was for the church to serve mainly as a theater for regularperformances of a Johns town immigrant drama, aiming to expand the offerings for tourists.
The consultants, however, cautioned not to stake too much on one drama.
Even Broadway producers can’t predict which shows will succeed, said consultant Michael Hardy of the Institute of Outdoor Theatre at East Carolina University.
“We think it’s a good idea to have an immigrant drama, but we don’t think it’s a good idea for it to be the only thing the theater has to stand on,” he said.
But with diverse offerings from various performing arts groups, if the Steeples Project “can get the building restored, we have a high degree of confidence the operation will succeed,” he said.
The former St. Columba, on Broad Street, was built between 1913 and 1915. It was designed by Pittsburgh architect John T. Comes. It resembles another Comes sanctuary, the former St. John the Baptist Church in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood, which likewise has found a second life as the Church Brew Works.
The St. Columba sanctuary’s mural, by artist Felix Lieftuchter, depicts a crucified Christ surrounded by figures that include a top-hatted capitalist and industrial workers in distress, with smokestacks in the distance.
The Steeples Project has already renovated a former German parish, Immaculate Conception, which it now operates as the Grand Halle on Broad Street, host to wedding receptions, concerts and other events.
The third church, the former SS. Casimir and Emerich Church, which housed a Polish congregation, has since been sold to a private business specializing in event planning.
The consultants’ study is being funded by grants from various organizations.