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The good news is that the new catering kitchen at the Turnage Theatre is almost complete. The exciting news is a couple of discoveries that came about during the renovation work.

“When we were doing some work on the dropped ceiling, we discovered high above what appears to be the original tin ceiling for that room,” said Justin Godley, a general superintendent at Stocks and Taylor Construction. “We also had to cut a hole in the floor for some work and discovered a basement that no one knew about. I got to looking around and discovered what we believe to be the original boiler for the building. The thing is huge with six-inch diameter piping and is about the size of a small car. We were hoping for some kind of treasure or gold,” said Godley, with a huge smile.

In 1913 the ‘New Theatre’ as it was called, was built on the second floor of the H.E. Hodges building, the current location of the Turnage Theatre. Its scheduled opening in October of 1913 was delayed by a month after a hurricane severely damaged the back of the building on September 3. The ‘New Theatre’ would remain until 1930 when new owner C.A. Turner purchased the building and built The Turnage Theatre on the back of the existing building, considered one of the most modern of its time in eastern North Carolina. “It is amazing and unfortunate that over time things like this just get covered over or hidden,” said Godley. “I can only imagine the history this building could tell would be unbelievably amazing. It is just a shame that more of it was never preserved.”

“Finding things like this makes you appreciate even more the history behind the building,” said Kelly Shanafelt, executive director of the Beaufort County Arts Council.

In the meantime, the new catering kitchen should be up and running in the next two or three weeks. “We do a lot of events and rentals here at the theater,” said Shanafelt. “By modernizing the kitchen, caterers will now be able to come in and reheat and cook things as we never had a stove and an oven, just a refrigerator and a microwave. The new kitchen will provide a much more friendly space for when we host many of our events, including meetings and weddings. It will also open the door for new opportunities like dinner and movie nights, or weddings with full buffets made right here.”

The renovation project is being made possible through funding from a USDA grant.