The Clayton Center Thrives as a Performance Hall
arts, clayton center, culture,
Well-known country singer Kathy Mattea performed there during the 2008-09 season, as did legendary blues guitarist Johnny Winter. And other headline acts continue to be booked year after year.
The Clayton Center has been an entertainment destination in Johnston County since it opened in 2002. The performance schedule runs from September through April.
“We mainly feature musical theater performances but also host some concerts, author appearances and more,” says Heidi Stump, executive director of The Clayton Center. “This impressive building is a true landmark in Clayton, and now it is a landmark jewel.”
The center is actually housed in a 1924 building that once thrived as Clayton K-12 School and then Clayton Elementary School. An $8.2 million renovation completed in 2002 allowed many of the school’s original amenities to remain intact within the three-story landmark structure.
Those amenities include wooden floors that have been brought back to their original 1920s luster.
“The building had been vacant for quite some time and then fell into extreme disrepair, almost to the point of being condemned,” Stump says. “But groups like the Women’s Club of Clayton and others got things rolling to save the schoolhouse, then the Clayton Cultural Arts Foundation also got behind the project. From there, everything started happening.”
In 2000, the town of Clayton conducted a communitywide survey to see if residents would support the building renovation, and the response was overwhelming to save it. At that point, town officials secured the services of the North Carolina-based Winslow Group, which has a long history of overseeing fundraising campaigns for a variety of projects, including historic renovations.
“A fundraising initiative began with the Cultural Arts Foundation raising $2.1 million to help renovate one side of the building for the arts, while the town kicked in $6.1 million to primarily upgrade the other side of the building,” she says. “As a result, one half of The Clayton Center features a spacious performance arts venue that includes a 606-seat auditorium. Meanwhile, the other half is now occupied by the town of Clayton, including the mayor’s office, along with administrators and staff members.”
The second floor above the auditorium serves as a conference center for the community, and the building’s third floor can be used for meeting space and is also occupied by the Clayton Parks and Recreation Department.
“In addition, between the cultural arts side and the town hall side of the building is a central lobby with a glass atrium, and that attractive space can be rented to the public for formal gatherings and social receptions,” Stump says. “There is so much to like about this building that it’s difficult to list all of its attributes.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
