Historian Bruce Huffman knows the whole story of Williamsport’s Brandon Park Bandshell.
“There is nothing more Williamsport in Williamsport than the Bandshell. It really was a total community effort,” Huffman said.
Built more than a century ago with donations from the community, including the company of Huffman’s great-great grandfather, William Huffman, the bandshell will soon undergo a major overhaul.
The outdoor stage will get a new coat of paint, new plumbing and electrical fixtures, updated restroom fixtures that improve accessibility for people with disabilities and all new brick and mortar.
The park is even older than the bandshell. A. Boyd Cummings donated 42 acres to Williamsport in 1889 in honor of his late sister, Jane Cummings Brandon. The park’s deed says it “shall be an open space for the citizens of Williamsport forever,” Huffman said.
Before the bandshell, concerts took place at the Victorian Roundhouse, a pagoda built in about 1891 that still stands today. The Victorian Roundhouse overlooked the land where Williamsport would soon grow.
Photos from the 1890s depict a much different landscape with the park and city barren of trees. Fields of grass contrast the park's luscious foliage today.
At one point, 10,000 people attended a concert by Demorest Band in honor of the park’s commissioners, according to an Aug. 23, 1899 Williamsport Sun and Banner article.
But hearing bands play was a problem.
“Even though they had several concerts there, it soon became a complaint,” Huffman said. “That had its own set of challenges too because they weren't really on a stage, they were at ground level.”
The Reverend William C. Rittenhouse, a local pastor, proposed the bandshell in 1912, partly because he held religious services there. Shell-shaped stages had become the norm in the 1890s, Huffman said.
“Bands or community people would say ‘hey, why don't we get a better band stand or better platform or something.’ Then they started to bring up the idea of a band shell, which around the turn of the century was becoming more widely put up in different cities around the country,” Huffman said.
Huffman noted the 1913 donation by his great great grandfather’s construction company, W.H.C Huffman and Sons, but Williamsport residents, businesses and other organizations also donated to build the one-story, brick and stucco structure.
“2,000 cards were handed out at one of (Rittenhouse's) speaking engagements. Then the (Daily) Gazette and Bulletin newspaper really got behind the effort and published several articles about it,” Huffman said.
People donated about $1, about $30 today. They raised $2,500 for a wooden structure, then decided they wanted a permanent brick one so they raised another $2,500.
F. Arthur Rianhard, a Williamsport architect, designed the stage. Williamsport contractors Jacob Gehron & Sons built it.
Williamsport’s Repasz Band played at the bandshell’s June 1914 dedication, Huffman said. The band continues to play there occasionally.
The stage regularly hosted concerts that attracted thousands of people. Former President Jimmy Carter spoke there in 1976 during his first presidential campaign. The concerts ended in 2022 for safety reasons, including mold and structural damage.
Huffman began pressing for improvements almost a decade ago. In 2018, Huffman told the City Council he believed no other city building more deserved rehabilitation than Brandon Park’s Bandshell.
City council awarded a $567,900 contract to Lundy Construction of Williamsport in March and construction began April 1. Fred Machmer, Lundy’s project manager, said the damage was extensive.
“After we tore the front face down it was so bad that we put some four inches behind it before we built brick because we didn't have anything to attach to,” said Fred Machmer, project manager for Lundy Construction. “We built about 30 to 36 inches and put new caps on.”
City engineer Bill Scott expects the reconstruction to finish ahead of schedule.
“Originally, we were thinking about Labor Day being done now. I think we're gonna be ahead of Labor Day. They hope to do it in July,” Scott said. “The stage is all new, all new bricks out in front of the stage all the way around it. It had severe water damage over the years and was crumbling.”
The bandshell’s original color is unknown because all the old photos are black and white. Williamsport’s Historical Architectural Review Board is deciding on the new color to replace the current mustard yellow.
“It's going to pop and it's not going to be dull and boring,” Scott said.
Concerts will return and supporters hope to use the stage to screen movies, too.
“Hundreds, if not 1000s, of events that have been community oriented - music, musical events, speaking events, the site for the Easter egg hunt every year. It's great that 110 years after it being dedicated in 1914, that it is receiving some very deserving TLC to bring it up to the conditions that it deserves for such an important structure,” Huffman said.
