Renovation of the Wakefield Opera House Balcony, Wakefield, NH
An $8,000 grant was awarded in 2009 to the Wakefield Opera House for renovation of the opera house balcony. This was one piece of the much larger project of renovating the Wakefield Town Hall which is both on the NH State Register of Historical Places and the National Register of Historical Places. Built in 1895, and designed by A.T. Ramsdell of Dover, the Town Hall has been in continuous use as the municipal cultural and entertainment center of the town since it was built.
The goal of this phase of the project was to improve accessibility to the balcony by removal and replacement of non-code compliant stairs. The balcony had been closed for several years due to structural and safety deficiencies.