VOCAL GROUP HALL OF FAME Music shrine readies for start of season

The spring opening will coincide with the naming of the Class of 2002 inductees.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- The Vocal Group Hall of Fame & amp; Museum will reopen in the next few weeks for the 2002 season, its new director says.
Bob Crosby, who took over as director of the East State Street landmark in February, said the opening day will coincide with the announcement of the Hall of Fame's Class of 2002 inductees.
"Things are starting to take shape," he said last week, adding that he expects to have the details in place and announce a formal reopening date by the end of the month.
The facility has traditionally closed for winter.
Crosby said both the Pop Music Building, opened at 98 E. State St. in December 1997, and the Barbershop Building, opened across the street at 115 E. State St. in August 2001, are scheduled to reopen.
History
The complex was the dream of Sharon native Tony Butala, the founder of The Lettermen singing trio, of which he is still a member.
Financing for the building purchases and renovations was handled by Sharon businessman James E. Winner Jr.
Winner subsidized its early years with personal donations to keep the doors open, but he has now stepped back from direct involvement.
Butala, who lives in California, said recently that he will be taking a more active role in running the hall and museum. He said the hall, a nonprofit venture, is at the point where it needs to support itself.
Theater project
Both he and Crosby said recently they are interested in gaining control of the Columbia Theater on West State Street to help it become a performing arts center and to link it with the hall.
Butala bought the theater, closed since a fire destroyed its entry 21 years ago, at a tax sale in 1984 and sold it to Columbia Theatre Inc., a group established to restore the 1,700-seat facility, for $1.
Columbia Theatre recently announced that it has abandoned plans to renovate the theater after spending about $1 million on the project.
The total restoration cost could run as much as $6 million. That's money the group can't raise, and there just isn't enough community support for that kind of effort, the organization said.
Butala and Crosby believe the theater can be linked to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame & amp; Museum.
The hall is now run by a private, nonprofit foundation and a similar arrangement could be set up for the theater, Butala said, adding that the hall and a reopened theater could work hand in hand to bring entertainment to Sharon.
The theater could be the site of fund-raising concerts to benefit the hall, and groups inducted into the hall could perform concerts in the theater, he added.
gwin@vindy.com