‘Vibrant community center’ coming to Canonsburg
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The former Canon-McMillan Middle School along East College Street
Courtesy of Mike Melone
Where once students roamed the hallways, now the Canonsburg Educational & Cultural Institute hopes the greater Canonsburg community will come together to experience the arts, fitness and dining in a myriad of ways.
Where once students roamed the hallways, now the Canonsburg Educational & Cultural Institute hopes the greater Canonsburg community will come together to experience the arts, fitness and dining in a myriad of ways. Pictured here is the library in what was once the Canon-McMillan Middle School and will someday serve as the CECI cultural center.
Courtesy of Mike Melone
One of the first priorities of the Canonsburg Educational & Cultural Institute is to update the auditorium for theater performances, comedy shows, speaking engagements and more. CECI aims to maintain the auditorium’s charm.
The veterans statue outside the former Canon-McMillan Middle School was revealed on Memorial Day 1924, and a plaque erected by the Jefferson Historical Society in 2021. The building behind the statue was recently purchased by the Canonsburg Educational & Cultural Institute and will serve as a regional cultural center.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
John McMillan’s Log School, one of the oldest buildings in western Pennsylvania, sits outside the Canonsburg Educational & Cultural Institute center, formerly the Canon-McMillan Middle School, where CECI hopes to offer arts, fitness, dining and other programming and opportunities to the greater Canonsburg area.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Before it was a soon-to-be cultural center, the auditorium at 25 E. College St. in Canonsburg was the Canon-McMillan Middle School auditorium and before that, part of Canonsburg High School.
One of the first things on on CECI's to-do list: update the former Canon-McMillan Middle School auditorium. The local nonprofit is working with a renowned New York preservationist to bring the venue up to date while mainlining its charm.
The former Canonsburg Middle School along East College Street is being repurposed as a different kind of educational center.
Earlier this month, Canon-McMillan School District approved the sale of the property to the Canonsburg Educational & Cultural Institute (CECI), a nonprofit founded in 2021 whose mission is to provide enriching educational and cultural opportunities to communities served through outreach and related programs.
“This project is community-based, not only Canonsburg but the region. Its main objective is to enhance opportunities in many, many different facets for the people of Canonsburg and the region. We’re very excited to move down that path,” said Tony Colaizzo, board president of CECI.
CECI was born about two years ago out of conversations between Colaizzo, Lisa and Paul Scarmazzi, Mike Melone, Eugene Tempesta and the late Jay Romano, CEO of the Pittsburgh Ballet, all of whom serve on the board, about how to positively impact Canonsburg and surrounding areas.
“We didn’t want to do anything that already existed. We wanted to do something above and beyond what’s currently available so that we could help the community and the region move to new places,” Colaizzo said.
The group of Canonsburg residents decided to offer a space that enhances education, culture and community for all ages. When the cultural center officially opens, it will offer shows, fitness and dining, along with arts and other educational opportunities, to the greater Canonsburg region.
“What we’re focused on right now is turning the auditorium into a theater, working with the gym to become a family rec center, finding some kind of food services for the cafeteria and addressing the potential parking challenge that we’re going to have down the road,” Colaizzo said.
The 860-seat auditorium was once the venue for Canon-Mac middle school plays and spring musicals. Students would cross the busway from the classroom building to the theater and spend a morning or afternoon watching classmates become larger-than-life characters in grand stage productions.
Now, CECI envisions even grander performances in the auditorium, which doesn’t seem to require much renovation before the curtains are drawn.
“It’s in good shape. It’s got good bones. I think it’s really, what does it want to be when it grows up?” said Paul Scarmazzi. “You can have regional performances now. It’s a tweener type of size, but it’s large enough to have nice (shows) at, whether it’s musicals, comedy shows, speaking events and engagements. Long-term we’re looking at, what does it need to really transform it to put in class A shows, symphony and ballet and those types of things, to kind of elevate the offerings here?”
CECI connected with a renowned New York licensed architect with decades of experience in historic preservation. The local nonprofit hopes to work with the architect to update the auditorium while maintaining its historic charm.
“Those are the types of people across the entire project we’re looking for that will enable us to move to the next level,” Colaizzo said.
The arts will spill out from the auditorium into the building that houses the former middle school classrooms and library, where the CECI team envisions area artists and professionals sharing skills with the greater community. How those programs will look remains to be seen while the nonprofit focuses on reimagining the gymnasium as a “healthy community living room,” Scarmazzi said.
“Especially today with obesity, mental illness, you just need activity and you need a good venue to do that,” Scarmazzi said. “(This property is) so central, people can walk to it.”
The gymnasium boasts a basketball court and indoor seating, at least one wrestling room and a natatorium with a 50-meter pool that CECI would love to keep, if funding comes in.
“We want it to be a recreational location. We want to find the right people to run it and operate it and collaborate with the rest of the property on projects,” Colaizzo said.
The rest of the project includes transforming the massive kitchen and cafeteria, which once served and seated hundreds of students daily, into a community dining space.
“The cafeteria presents a big opportunity for us because what we found downtown is that not having a kitchen is a big barrier to getting restaurants to come into town,” Colaizzo said. “This happens to have a kitchen that’s big enough for more than one restaurant. We’re excited about bringing people in to recognize the opportunity with the auditorium, with the rec center and other things that we have planned that will enable them to have a built-in base of customers, as well as the rest of the community and region.”
CECI is toying with the idea of a restaurant incubator, startups or more traditional eateries in the space.
“It’ll be a matter of time and connections to see … what it’s ultimately going to morph into,” Colaizzo said.
It’s a matter of time before the cultural center in downtown Canonsburg opens to the public, too.
CECI just signed the sales agreement and is working on due diligence, including evaluating the buildings and campus to see how much funding is needed for renovations.
The fundraising efforts are in early stages and CECI is building a team of sponsors, volunteers and teachers to bring the center to life.
“We’re just growing into it,” said Colaizzo. “We need ideas and we need support. We’re looking for people that are passionate about a particular topic that they are dying to get involved with to share with the rest of the community. I think that it takes faith, belief and vision. It’s a work in progress.”
Once the cultural center gets off the ground, the CECI board envisions it as a bustling anchor of not only downtown Canonsburg, but of the region.
“I see it as a vibrant community center that has activities seven days a week, that supports the community, that identifies unmet needs and continues to grow and flourish through collaboration with the community, with the people that come here,” Scarmazzi said.
For more on the Canonsburg Educational & Cultural Institute, or to support, visit https://www.goceci.org/.