Item 15522 - Cumston Hall Auditorium Seating, Monmouth, ca. 1900

Item 15522 - Cumston Hall Auditorium Seating, Monmouth, ca. 1900
Contributed by Monmouth Museum
Item 15522
Cumston Hall Auditorium Seating, Monmouth, ca. 1900
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*Credit line must read: Collections of Monmouth Museum
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This is the interior of the second floor of Cumston Hall. The head carpenter on the project was Mellen J. Hanscom of Leeds, and the head plasterer was Daniel Kavanaugh of Lewiston.

The following descriptions are excerpted from the Lewiston Journal of May, 1900:
[The auditorium was built in] “opera house style, with sloping floor, balcony, stage and boxes...The prevailing tints in the auditorium are old rose and Nile green; the relief work is in old ivory and pricked out with gold. All the beautiful relief work on the proscenium and the balcony front and in the whole interior is from original design and has been made on the premises. The rococo work is especially noticeable from its exquisiteness. The decorations follow the renaissance effect...The panels in the groining above the balcony are very beautiful and will repay long study. Each contains a spray of flower or flowering frond...This hall will be the first building in Monmouth to be lighted by electricity...The auditorium will seat 452 people and with "extra seats that can be added without obstructing any aisle, will accommodate 520...The balcony design is thoroughly original. There are no supporting columns to obstruct the view. It springs as an arch from side to side of the building, and is locked in a V brace, the whole forming a structure that is as safe as the solid earth. And at the same time it so lends itself to the scheme of construction that the acoustic properties of the hall are helped by it.”

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