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Groucho Marx once said -
“Politics doesn't make strange bedfellows - marriage does.”
Well, at first glance, Cape May Stage’s ambitious renovation project makes the
marriage of architectural restoration and the needs of a working theater look
exactly like a couple of a really strange bedfellows.
Phase
One of Project Encore began on the circa 1853 building, located at the corner of
Bank and Lafayette streets, in May of last year and ended in October. It isn’t
the kind of work anyone would really notice, as Tom Carroll, Historical
Restoration Chairman of the committee pointed out recently while at
the top – the very top – of the belvedere or cupola on a cold and icy morning.
Underneath the cupola are sturdy steel reinforcements and new wood beams
supporting a new roof and providing a safe place from which to hang the new
stage lighting.
Looking
down from on high, one can see the stage and seating area in which so
many theatrical productions have taken place over the years. Preliminary plans for Phase Two of the restoration
have already begun and are expected to be completed by May 1. These changes will
affect the stage area, back and front – actors and actresses will have their own
dressing room. The players will, at long last, have their very own bathroom and
will no longer have
 to run out the side door and around to the front.
Riser-style seating will be installed – audience members will no longer have to
do the bob and weave to see over someone’s head. State of the art lighting and
sound will be installed. The front entrance and foyer, the windows and doors all
will be restored, or in the case of the badly damaged windows, replaced, and
brought back to their former elegance.
The
$1.2 million project is expected to be completed by May of next year and plans
are already underway for a gala season opening.
Just
how did this strange marriage of theater and historical restoration come about?
In order to answer that question, we need to go back in time.
Jim
Moffatt, Project Encore chairman, was able to give us a little insight with the
assistance of a 9-minute video featuring actor Robert Prosky, committee deputy
chair/ videographer John Bailey and artistic director Michael Carleton.
Early
Presbyterians visiting the island in the 1800s did not have a church. They
instead traveled to Cold Spring Presbyterian Church on Seashore Rd, some three
miles away. In 1844 one of the ministers decided to build a summer church or
Visitor’s Church at the north end of Washington Street. As the town became more
established, the newly formed Cape May congregation asked if they could buy the
church. The Cold Spring elders said no. The Cape May congregation said o.k. and
went ahead and purchased a property on Lafayette Street. For a sum of $7,000,
Cape Island Presbyterian Church was built in an “exotic, revivalist” style which
included an onion-shaped cupola. The first service occurred on July 17th,
1853.
Civil
War hero Col. Henry Sawyer worshipped in this church for over 40 years as well
as serving as a trustee of Cape Island Presbyterian Church. During the war
(Civil War that is) Sawyer, who built the Chalfonte Hotel in 1876, was taken
prisoner and about to be hung. While in captivity, Col. Sawyer, according to
Bailey, wrote his wife that he wished he could look through the church doors and
see his family at worship. A last minute prisoner exchange involving Robert E.
Lee’s son, arranged by President Lincoln, made that wish come true. In 1871,
eight years later, Sawyer escorted his daughter Louisa down the aisle of Cape
Island Presbyterian Church when Louisa married Dr. Samuel F. Ware.
In
1898, the congregation outgrew the small church and built another, much larger
one at the corner of Hughes and Decatur streets. The next year, the
Episcopalians took over the church and named it the Church of the Advent. In
1903 Miss. Annie Knight, daughter of Edward Knight, the then owner of Congress
Hall and the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, purchased the building from
the Presbyterians and gave it to the Episcopalians, who used it from the fall of
each year to the summer. Once the Episcopalians
 abandoned the building to build
another church at the corner of Franklin and Washington streets– it stayed
vacant for years and fell into disrepair. In 1952, the parish sold the church to
the City for $2,000. The city had plans to demolish the church as well as the
old fire hall next to it. In 1956, with demolition of the historic church
looming, a group of concerned cottagers (summer residents), led by Thomas
Harris, Jr. made a deal with the city to lease the building to them for ten
years at $1 a year. In exchange, they promised to renovate the church. The
consortium managed to raise about $24,000, ($6,500 of which was contributed by
Mr. Harris) which was used to convert the building to a community center. The
fire hall next door did not fare so well and is now a parking lot for the
theater.
For
nearly 40 years the Community Center of Cape May functioned as both a Welcome
Center for tourists in the summer
 and meeting place for many of the women’s
groups and civic groups in the evenings and during the off season. In 1993 Cape
May Stage founder and artistic director Michael Laird approached the city for
permission to move his theater company over to the Welcome Center for evening
performances – Welcome Center by day and theater by night. He negotiated three
3-year leases with the city for $1,000 a year until 1999 when the Welcome Center
relocated to its present home at the train station off Lafayette Street. With
the Welcome Center's departure, Cape
May Stage finally had a home of its own. In January 2001, Laird succumbed to
cancer and a new artistic director was appointed.
So,
here’s how two unlikely interests became bedfellows - Under the leadership of
current artistic director Michael Carleton, Cape May Stage recently signed an
agreement with the city similar to the one signed nearly 50 years ago. The city
agreed to lease the former church to Cape May Stage for 50 years in exchange for
a nominal price. For its part, Cape May Stage agreed to renovate the old church,
bring it back to it historical integrity and open it up to the public for
community use when the theater is dark.
The
Project Encore committee began their work in earnest two years ago. Their first
task was to find a solid base of contributors. They also needed to search for
grant monies. Lastly, they needed to find an historical architect up to the task
of marrying the old with the new.
As to
the first concern, Moffatt found local residents to be very generous in their
support to the tune of $550,000, including a donation from Scott Bennung.
Bennung of Preservation Products donated the coating used to help restore the
“rusty, worn but original” roof. Bennung’s father Carl, a Cape May cottager and
a chemical engineer, invented the coating when trying to deal with his own roof
problems.
 In
terms of outside money, Project Encore is the recipient of a $100,000 Casino
Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) grant as well as a $50,000 Project
Management Costs award from the New Jersey Historic Trust. Tom Carroll said the
group has also applied for a grant from the NJ Historic Trust to cover 50 per
cent of the restoration costs, which they are optimistic about receiving.
As to
an architect – the board of trustees hired Michael Calafati of Preservation NJ.
He has received assistance from Bennung, Cape May resident Dave Clemens, and Andrzej Odrzywolski with Action Painting and Restoration among others.
So how
‘bout this marriage? Is it working? Tom Carroll, former owner of the Mainstay
Inn, said historical preservation is always about “straddling history with
function.” When the restoration is complete, the building will be 100%
reversible. Within one week, any changes made to accommodate the theater can be
removed and the building can go back to its original state. “Preservation is
always a compromise. Ours is very respectful of the building.”
Well,
those bedfellows aren’t really so strange after all, are they? |
