Take a Tour of Universal Preservation Hall
The front facade of Universal Preservation Hall. The former church in Saratoga Springs is now a state-of-the-art performance space.
At the end of 2021, the League recognized Proctors Collaborative for their dual restorations of the Capital Repertory Theatre (theRep) in Albany and Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs with an Excellence in Historic Preservation Award.
Universal Preservation Hall (UPH) was built in 1871, serving as a Methodist Church until 1976, when it transferred ownership to the Universal Baptist Church. The building had been in consistent use since its founding, but had fallen into significant disrepair over the years. Saratoga Springs condemned the building in 2000, slating it for demolition. Over the next 15 years, a dedicated group of grassroots preservationists rallied to save the building. Proctors Collaborative became involved in 2015, marking a new chapter for this beloved local landmark.
Pictured left to right: The ADA-accessible addition built to provide easy access to all visitors seen from the outside; Inside the new addition, which also serves as the theatre’s box office. Here you can see the original exterior brick wall now serves as an interior wall inside the glass enclosure; A restored stained glass window and curved staircase; A view of the lower level of the theatre space, showing how restored pews are repurposed as seating. The curtains you see can be pulled out to hide this seating area, making the space endlessly flexible for any kind of performance or event UPH might host.
In addition to serving the greater Capital-Saratoga region through high quality performing arts and related education programs, sustainable economic development and civic engagement is core to Proctors’ mission. One way they have done this over the years is through stewarding their historic buildings — their flagship theatre in Schenectady is another great example of a historic building Proctors has been responsible for preserving. Both theRep and UPH have been transformed into sites that will actively benefit their communities, providing opportunities for economic development and community engagement where vacant structures once stood.
Looking down into the main performance space from the top of the balcony.
The restoration at UPH began in earnest in 2018, with the firm Lacey Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation, LLP (LTRW) leading the work. In addition to restoring original features like stained glass windows — truly a spectacular and defining detail of the space — Proctors and LTRW worked hard to make sure the building would be accessible to anyone who might want to enjoy their programming. As with many 150-year-old buildings, the site was not accessible to those with physical impairments. The front facade features three imposing staircases leading to the main entrance, which makes for a rather grand, if not necessarily inviting, welcome. A solution involved building an elevator tower that is camouflaged within the existing structure and adding an ADA-compliant addition to the ground level so anyone and everyone can easily enter. In the theatre space, the balcony was brought forward to make room for people entering and exiting via the elevator, which also allowed for a larger seating capacity.
It’s a truly spectacular theatre space and if you ever get a chance to visit, we highly recommend it. As one of our final site visits of 2021, we drove up to Saratoga to see it for ourselves. UPH Director Teddy Foster and LTRW Architect Mark Thaler showed us around — and we took some video so you can check it out too!
Want to see even more? UPH has a 360° tour on their website!