In the past, when Wilmington's historic 1858 Thalian Hall has undergone major renovations, the shows didn't always go on.
During a visit to the Hall in late September, however, patrons bought tickets to upcoming performances at the box office while, perhaps unbeknownst to some of them, the clatter of construction filled the former Wilmington City Hall offices and council chambers/ballroom just a few feet away.
"It's like taking apart an airplane while it's flying and putting it back together while it's still in the air," said Shane Fernando, CEO of Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, the nonprofit that runs the venue for the city of Wilmington. "We just wrapped pre-construction. We're in full construction now."
This time around, the 1858
main stage and 1990 studio theater are staying open during an extensive $25 million renovation to the former city hall portion of the building and council chambers/ballroom.
The Hall was closed for about 18 months from 1988 to 1990, when the current lobby, backstage spaces and studio theater were added, and for some three years for renovations from 1938 to 1941. From 2009 to 2010, the main stage was closed for more than six months during renovations while the studio theater and ballroom remained open.
The ballroom is currently being transformed into the new Hippodrome performance space, while former city offices will become the new Wild Cat Club and performance space, along with multiple educational and studio spaces that can also host performances.
In 2023, the city of Wilmington announced plans to move its offices and meeting spaces out of Thalian Hall, where it had been for well over a century, into the high-rise Skyline Center on Wilmington's Northside. The city will retain ownership of Thalian Hall, while Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts now manages the entire building.
It's a huge project — the biggest since Thalian Hall's cornerstone was placed in 1855 — and so far $11 million of the $25 million has been raised.
"We're a year and four months ahead of our fundraising goals," Fernando said.
Of that $11 million, $3 million has come in the form of a grant from the New Hanover Community Endowment, while the rest has been raised from private sources.
In addition, the Wilmington City Council recently approved up to $3.5 million to be used for the installation of fire suppression systems in the parts of the building that don't currently have them, as well work to the Princess Street and Third Street porticos and the replacement of a 1930s-era elevator in the former city hall part of the building "that hadn't been used in 40 years," Fernando said.
A control switch from that elevator now sits in Fernando's office.
"All of these are very messy and invasive projects," Fernando said. "I really appreciate the city's foresight. Now is the perfect time to do" the city's portion of the work while the other projects are going on.
The entire project is expected to be completed by mid-2028.
A year from now in October 2027, Fernando said, renovations are expected to begin to the current 1990s lobby, including the relocation of the box office and concession stand and replacement of the bathrooms.
When that happens the lobby will be closed and patrons will come in through the former city hall entrance at the new Wild Cat Club, making their way into the old Thalian Hall lobby through a door that, until recently, no one knew existed.
When major work was last done to the city hall side of the building in the 1930s, Fernando said, there was a door from the city hall lobby directly into the original Thalian Hall lobby. The location of that door, since plastered over, was found by crews with Sawyer Sherwood & Associate Architecture and Monteith Construction, and restoring it will allow the main stage to host shows while work is done on the lobby next year.
"It's a gift from over 100 years ago that lets us stay open," Fernando said.
There haven't been too many unexpected discoveries during construction so far, Fernando said, but workers did find a few "19th-century chicken carcasses in the basement," likely leftover lunches from hungry workers of the 1800s, as well as an old munitions vault from when the basement housed the Wilmington Police Department, as it did until the early 1960s.
"We saw where the old jail cells were," Fernando said.
In the former city hall lobby and offices, wooden doors and moldings from the 19th and early 20th centuries are being saved for re-use, while bronze doors from the 1930s, from the main entrance and at street level, are being restored by their original manufacturer, which still makes parts for them, Fernando said.
The portico steps on Third Streets will be "reclad" in granite, Fernando said, and outfitted with a lighted railing.
And when the Wild Cat Club bar, coffee house and performance venue does open a year or so from now, patrons will be getting something new, but also something historic.
The bar will be downstairs in the former location of Wilmington's first public library, Fernando said. The bar itself will be fashioned from the old front desk at the New Hanover County Public Library's old location at Third and Princess streets, Fernando said, tying one of Wilmington's most historic spaces even more tightly to history.
John Staton is the arts and culture reporter for the StarNews. You can reach him at jstaton@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: How Thalian Hall’s renovations will change the audience experience
