Photos: Salvaging wood from Maine’s oldest opera house

Renovations to Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center, considered the state's oldest opera house, began this month. A crew from Barn Boards & More, a local wood salvaging business, was pulling up and saving the tongue-and-groove floor boards from the theater Thursday to reuse as flooring or make into tabletops. By December 2023, the three-story performing arts venue in Gardiner is expected to reopen to the public with a 400-seat theater, a large lobby and concession area, full-service box office, green rooms for performers, and an elevator. Local hotel owner Benjamin Johnson turned the former livery stable into a performance hall in 1884, and it became an opera house in 1888. All photos by Kennebec Journal photojournalist Joe Phelan.

Random Ideas plan Johnson Hall Free Waterfront Concert

Dump truck to blame for power outage in Gardiner area

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Gardiner man charged in alleged Farmingdale stabbing

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Gardiner seeks to clarify cemetery plot ownership under new rules requiring proof

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Central Maine Power workers rescue 2 people from burning Richmond house

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Communities across Maine secure $24.2 million to address contaminated sites

The funding is part of the $1.5 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in November 2021 that identifies money to address infrastructure needs across the United States.

Gardiner’s Johnson Hall secures additional $150,000 from city

Contribution to help inch historic opera house closer to fundraising goal that has jumped in recent months.

Brunswick vapers look elsewhere

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Gardiner Main Street announces citywide grant program to aid local businesses

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