Staff photo / Ed Runyan JoAnn Stock and Matt Pagac of Stambaugh Auditorium stand on the promenade Wednesday with the cleaned limestone facade and new limestone steps behind them. A $4.1 million project to restore parts of the building’s exterior nears completion.

YOUNGSTOWN — Workers took out all of the limestone steps on Stambaugh Auditorium’s exterior staircase and replaced them with $600,000 worth of new limestone.

They also took out the metal framework that was under the steps and replaced it with another material that will not rust.

They replaced all of the concrete promenade and created a new handicapped-accessible ramp from the promenade down to the formal garden, and cleaned decades of soot from the entire limestone exterior.

And they have begun to install exterior lighting that promises to make the historic, 96-year-old public venue an eye-catcher from various vantage points around the city.

The $4.1 million project looks to be nearly complete as one drives past on Fifth Avenue, but work will continue into the spring, said Matt Pagac, chief executive and operating officer, and JoAnn Stock, chief development officer.

“All of the heavy construction is pretty much complete, so if you look out there now, it looks like what it should look like, but a lot of detailed stuff is still being worked on. The handrails and front door are not there. Lighting is still being installed and programmed,” Pagac said.

Landscaping will be completed in the spring.

IT’S CLEAN

In addition to the staircase replacement, the facade is restored, thanks to a process that soaks the limestone under low pressure for six hours.

“Limestone, if you soak it with enough water, will release what it has absorbed,” Pagac said. Early in the cleaning, workers showed Pagac a section that had been really dark but had been soaked for about six hours.

“You could literally rub the dirt off with your finger with hardly any pressure — just comes right off. That’s pretty much with they did with the entire building, which took probably four months of them pouring water on the building five days a week, eight hours a day,” Pagac said.

“The building had never been cleaned, and it had never been repointed in its 96-year history, which says a lot for how it was originally constructed,” Pagac said. Pointing refers to the mortar joints in a building such as Stambaugh Auditorium. Repointing the joints means replacing the mortar.

“It was dirty. Going back to everything that has happened in this community in the past 96 years, there’s probably soot from the steel mills on there, and limestone has a fungus that grows on it,” Stock said.

“Limestone is very porous, so it absorbs everything — anything that is in the air, in the rain,” Pagac said. “The difference in the exterior of the building even now — without being finished — is amazing,” Stock said.

There’s a location in the formal garden where the cleaning stopped and uncleaned limestone begins up about 10 feet away, providing a glimpse of how much soot the stone accumulated over time. Stock said cleaning the remaining limestone is a project for later.

THE STEPS

Balusters were replaced near the new handicapped ramp, not far from other balusters that were not replaced. They match each other perfectly. Pagac said an original baluster was taken to the manufacturer of the replacements.

The steps were destroyed by the “freeze-thaw” cycle of an Ohio winter, Pagac said. “Ninety-six years of winters and lots of salt being thrown on them. It had caused it to deteriorate.”

“They were literally crumbling and unsafe,” Stock said.

The steel structure under the stairs had deteriorated because of the salt, Pagac said. The steel was removed and replaced. The new modern construction is mostly masonry and a structural foam, so it will not rust.

The project received $1.35 million in state funding in 2018 and 2021 and $500,000 from the Hine Memorial Fund of the Youngstown Foundation.

Other foundations providing large sums were the Frank and Pearl Gelbman Foundation, Ward Beecher and Florence Simon Beecher Foundation, Hynes Finnegan Foundation, Youngstown Ford Crandall Memorial Foundation, Monday Musical Fund, Thomases Family Endowment, Pollock Company Foundation, Premier Bank Foundation, Darling Fund of the Youngstown Foundation, Walter and Helen Bender Memorial Fund, Warren P. Williamson Jr. Fund of the Youngstown Foundation, Jane F. Lamb Charitable Foundation and Edward M. Barr Foundation.

Another $30,000 came from the personal gifts from the Stambaugh Board of Directors. Other individual gifts came from the community.

The total amount received is $3,334,420, the amount of donations pending is $250,000, and about $500,000 more is needed for the project, Stock said.

Anyone interested in making a donation can contact Stock at jstock@stambaughauditorium.com or by calling 330-747-5175.

Henry H. Stambaugh, Youngstown area businessman and philanthropist, left the money for the building. At his request, the mission of the building is to present events for the enjoyment, entertainment and education of the people of the area. It has a 2,553-capacity concert hall, 8,800-foot ballroom and recital hall.