The nearly completed restoration of the Capitol Room, a turn-of-the-century art deco ballroom located at the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center (H*MAC), is the latest chapter in one of the area’s most ambitious renovation projects.
It joins Stage on Herr and the recently opened Kitchen & Gallery Bar to form a complex that aspires to be Harrisburg’s “one stop shop for arts and culture.”
“This is the last surviving ballroom from the early 1900s left in Harrisburg,” said H*MAC founder and managing partner John Traynor. “When it’s fully operational, we’re going to be able to do music events here every weekend. That’s a lot of music and a lot of entertainment.”
The Capitol Room is spacious, and, being a ballroom, has no pillars or other obstructions to get in the way of good sightlines to the stage. The maple wood floor is original, and banks of arched windows grace the room on two sides. There is a bar in the back of the room and a door that leads out to an inviting balcony where event-goers can relax with a beer or a glass of wine and enjoy the beautiful view of the state Capitol.
The stage is an adequate size to house the national bands that Traynor hopes to showcase in the space, as well as theatrical productions by the center’s resident company, the H*MAC Theater Troupe. For the artists’ comfort, there are also greenrooms and bathrooms behind the stage. A Juliet balcony, which sits at mezzanine level in the back of the ballroom, is still to be renovated.
“It will be for the VIPs,” said Traynor. “We’ll have a private bar and bathrooms, and, obviously, everyone who sits up there will have a great view of the stage.”
The Capitol Room is a multi-use space that can be configured to hold a variety of events ranging from concerts, parties and theatrical events to fundraisers and weddings. It can accommodate as many as 500 guests for banquets and many more for theater-style seating or standing events. Traynor says that, while the ballroom opened up this past June, the public will have to wait until the spring to see big musical events there.
“We still have some work to do to get in a top-notch sound system,” he said. “This is a very expensive ticket item, and we want to make sure that the audio is perfect.”
In the meantime, the Capitol Room is fully operational as a banquet facility and has other uses, as well. The space hosted several holiday parties last month, and wedding receptions are scheduled for this year. A monthly arts flea market has started there, with more than 40 vendors and upwards of 1,000 people attending recently. The annual stage production of “The Rocky Horror Show,” which previously had been held at Stage on Herr, was moved upstairs this past Halloween for a successful two-day run, and some smaller acoustic concerts are also planned.
Now that the Capitol Room is open, Traynor says that H*MAC has much more to offer the community.
“You can come for the evening, have a drink at Stage on Herr, have dinner at the restaurant and then come up for the show,” he said.
H*MAC also plans to do a lot more programming and may sometimes run simultaneous shows at both venues.
“Our dream is to be as eclectic and welcoming to all kinds of possibilities,” he said.
The renovated structure that H*MAC now occupies was built 100 years ago as the city’s Jewish Community Center which had, aside from the ballroom, a swimming pool, kosher kitchens and classrooms for a yeshiva. During its heyday, the ballroom was used for weddings, bar mitzvahs and other celebrations.
The building later housed the Harrisburg Police Athletic League, with the ballroom converted to a basketball court.
“When I first saw the room, I remember thinking, ‘OK, we don’t have to change the wheel,’” he said. “What we just need to do is restore this beautiful old ballroom to what it was, a place for the community.”
The resulting Capitol Room has plenty of old-world charm, but don’t expect to find a lot of fancy chandeliers or other finery.
“We still have the curtains to do, but we intentionally left the room very simple and basic,” said Traynor. “This way, it is a blank canvas where anything can happen.”
The Capitol Room is located in the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center (H*MAC), 1110 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.harrisburgarts.com or call 717-412-4342.
