Dan Antion

Mapleton Hall – #ThursdayDoors

I love the way they’ve restored the exterior.

When I was touring the Suffield, CT Historic District, I stumbled onto and interesting fact – there are two historic districts. I’ve been through other towns that have historic homes outside of the established historic district, but I’ve never seen a town that has multiple districts.

As I toured the second district, I snapped a few photos (most of which I have shared in previous posts) and I discovered one gem – Mapleton Hall. The following has been excerpted from a few different, including CT Historic Buildings, and CTVisit.

“Constructed in 1883 as a Grange Hall to serve Suffield and the surrounding community, located along the trolley line from Hartford to Springfield, Its pancake breakfasts made it a ‘must see’ location into the early 20th century while ‘entertainments’ were added to provide additional draw. There are two murals representing mid-century theatricals. Two wings were added to the central hall in 1896 due to the large crowds. The hall has been lovingly restored and maintained by the Suffield Players to that period including the tin ceilings and wood floors. It is a historical gem.”

Mapleton Hall is the performance home for The Suffield Players, a community theater group. Community theater, as well as the professional theater companies, orchestras, and opera companies, are struggling with how to stage performances during this pandemic. The Suffield Players plan to open the 2020-21 season in early October with “The Dining Room” at Mapleton Hall, above, which had to be rescheduled because of the novel coronavirus shutdown.

This post is offered in conjunction with Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors, a weekly exploration of doors from around the world. Each week, Norm shares a collection of doors from his travels, and he invites others to link up via his site and share their own doors. If you want to show us your doors, or if you just want to see a big bunch of doors, visit Norm’s site.

I spied this while driving and knew I had to stop.
Mapleton Hall
I love the way they’ve restored the exterior.
I wish I could have gone inside.
Stage Door – Cast and Crew Only.
The wings (this is the east wing) were added after the central building was complete.
Front door – Mapleton Hall.
I have pictures of similar sign from so many buildings. This is 2020.
This structure is so interesting,

59 comments

    • That’s what I thought, but it’s always been a community hall. I was wondering why it had a bel tower if it was never a church or a school, but I guess they would alert people to meetings. Who knows?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  12. Hi Dan – what a delightful looking Hall – at first I thought it was a church … but I see the side has been extended – and so is large enough for shows etc … what a gorgeous little gem. Take care – Hilary

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • In this case, the “they” is the Community Theater group. They are currently painting the exterior, which I think is wonderful, especially since their season was cut short, and opening for 2020-21 is still in question.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  14. It’s a simple yet beautiful little building that I can imagine would be an ideal place for live local theater. I really sympathize with those in the live entertainment industry right now. All the disruptions and uncertainty are no fun for anyone of course but this is an industry that has been hit so incredibly hard and will be for some time to come ;-(
    Enjoy the break Dan!

    Like

    Reply

    • Thanks Norm. I agree, this industry has suffered a total loss since March. I don’t know if they’re going to be allowed to begin again this fall. The best answer at this point seems to be “maybe.”

      Enjoy the break. See you in September.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  17. Interesting about the two historic districts. We once lived in a community with a historic district, then an architectural preservation district. Kind of made more sense than two of the same.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I think they refer to them as an east and west district, but they aren’t connected. It’s odd, because there are some historic homes in between the two districts. I’m not sure, if I owned such a home, if I’d want to be in our outside the district. Sometimes, their restrictions are difficult to deal with.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  20. It’s a lovely building. I hope it does open for the 2020/2021 season and you get an opportunity to go inside and perhaps take a photo or two to share.

    I love the history and that bell tower. Pancakes sound pretty good it’s been ages since I’ve had any!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  23. What an interesting building! At first glance I thought it was a church, then realized it was a bell tower and not a steeple. The louvered section above the door roof looks great. I love this building and its history. Super doors post, Dan.

    Like

    Reply

Add your thoughts or join the discussion. One relevant link is OK, more require moderation. Markdown is supported.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.