A Capital Region music venue world famous for its acoustics will undergo a major expansion.
The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall will soon be home to the Capital Region Music Hub. The space will feature classrooms and teaching spaces, a new recording studio, and an event space that can hold up to 175 people.
The new space, housed below the historic music hall, will keep some of its notable furnishings by incorporating pieces of the bank — such as material once part of the former teller line. The renovations will preserve the hall’s famous acoustics.
Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Corporation executive director Jon Elbaum says the renovations will honor the venue’s history.
“The hall has many surprises that they've been offering up to us,” Elbaum said. “We're working with the State Office of Historic Preservation to ensure that we preserve this beautiful historic property that's very important to us, but at the same time, we have to bring it into the modern age.”
Elbaum, who has been with the hall since 2011, says the $14.5 million state and private investment will keep the city’s downtown vibrant and provide opportunities for underserved communities to participate in the arts.
“One of the key things that we've been focusing on for the last few years is our educational outreach. So, we're working with the local schools, as well as the Boys and Girls Club, YWCA, and Troy Housing Authority to help bring people who haven’t had the opportunity to experience things in this music hall,” Elbaum said. “And we have a whole roster of teaching artists that we've been working with over the last few years going out into the school. So, this will give us a place to do those, both within our own building, but also in the schools.”
The nearly century and a half old creative space will also see HVAC upgrades, expanding its season beyond its current October through mid-May schedule and making the space safer for artists, patrons, and volunteers.
Already this year, the venue has hosted 50,000 people, with annual totals expected to exceed 70,000.
Mayor Carmella Mantello says expanding its operations builds on her efforts to make Troy more accessible for residents and tourists. Mantello says the city is also working with other community organizations and nonprofits on cultural equity.
“The Historical Society, the Troy Public Library. ARPA monies have gone into not just our parks, but many of our nonprofits,” Mantello said. “And many of those nonprofits need that leverage. So even if we're a small partner to a large partner, the beauty is, they're partnering the ARPA monies and using them as leverage toward federal, state and local and private, other dollars.”
Daniel J. Hogarty Jr. is the retired president and CEO of the former Troy Savings Bank. The bank, which moved to its Second Street location in 1870, has been vacant for more than a decade. Speakers at Tuesday’s announcement credited Hogarty keeping the music hall alive. Hogarty says when the bank moved to a public company in the late 1900’s, he was concerned that potential buyers wouldn’t preserve the venue.
“So, what I did was I created this building into two condominium units. One was the music hall, which we put into a foundation, and the other was the bank condominium,” Hogarty said. “And then we created, actually a third foundation, which we used some of the proceeds from the public offering, known as the Troy Savings Bank Charitable Foundation, to provide this fund to support the music hall.”
Hogarty says the foundation has provided nearly $15 million in funding to preserve the hall since 1994.
Renovations are expected to begin this summer and be finished by the end of 2025.
