Calvin Center is catching on as home and haven for arts

The transformation of the Calvin Center building into an arts incubator continues.

The three-story red-brick building at 755 Mahoning Ave., in Youngstown’s Mahoning Commons neighborhood, already has a high-profile tenant in Robert Joki’s Rust Belt Theater Company, which opened its doors over the summer. You can get a look at the building and Rust Belt’s work this weekend, when the theater presents “The Ugly Christmas Sweater Revue.”

A couple of other spaces are also occupied, including a studio by photographer Mark Stahl and a dance-yoga-pilates studio run by Jennifer Neal.

Sean Timms, who bought the former schoolhouse in January, said he also has interest from other parties, including a recreational basketball league.

The building’s three-fourths-size hoop court can be surrounded by seating for about 600.

Calvin Center already has been used for events by Artists of the Rust Belt, a coalition of local artists; and for rock ’n’ roll shows.

Rust Belt Theater has about half of the available weekends booked, but Timms wants to fill the remaining weekends with live music.

Next up will be a holiday bash Dec. 23, with The Suite D’s, The Limbs, Throwback, Braille, Quotes Dawson and Lethal FX. Doors open at 8 p.m., and beer will be available. Admission is $5.

Calvin Center’s third floor remains unused, but Timms hopes to refurbish it and turn it into a space for dance and martial arts.

He also hopes to find a catering company that would utilize the building’s kitchen for dinner-theater productions in conjunction with Rust Belt.

In the meantime, Rust Belt is partnering with The Lemon Grove Caf , just a few blocks away in downtown, for a dinner-theater package.

Tickets are $75 for two tickets, dinner for two, free refreshments at the theater and some gifts (show-only tickets are $15). Call 330-507-2358 for reservations.

“Ugly Christmas Sweater” is a family show, and those who go are invited to wear their own aforementioned knitted monstrosity.

THE STAMBAUGH PIPE ORGAN: WHY ALL THE SOUND AND FURY?

The pipe organ at Stambaugh Auditorium isn’t the only one in Youngstown; there are about a half-dozen more in the city alone, mainly at churches.

And it’s not the biggest one. That honor goes to Trinity Methodist Church, downtown, which has 6,000 pipes — way more than Stambaugh’s, which has about 3,800.

Why, then, all the hoopla over the ongoing $1.4 million restoration of the Stambaugh organ?

Because of its quality, historical significance and its location in a major concert hall. So says Adam Zagotti, director of music at Trinity.

Ernst Skinner, whose company built the organ in 1926, collaborated with famed British organ builder Henry Willis. Many of the innovations they came up with were used for the first time in the Stambaugh organ.

Not only was the Stambaugh organ cutting edge at the time of its installation, but it has never been matched by modern efforts, according to Zagotti, who is a font of information about pipe organs, ancient instruments and music history in general.

Skinner organs are musical artifacts these days, says Zagotti, and the Stambaugh specimen is one of his finest.

Stambaugh is also one of the few major concert halls in the country that even has a pipe organ, he added.

The expansive rectangular auditorium has superb acoustics, and Skinner used gigantic pipes (some 30 feet tall) and a massive air blower to fill the room with thunderous sound.