Mayor Staffieri Announces the Return of the Sterling Opera House Cupola

Rep. Gentile, Mayor Staffieri, and Rep. Klarides with the cupola in the background.

Today, Mayor Anthony Staffieri announced that the newly renovated center cupola for the Sterling Opera House will be reinstalled.  

“Slow and steady wins the race. Despite the constraints on historic preservation funding, little by little the City of Derby has made real progress on the renovation of this majestic building. With help from the federal and state governments, we have begun to see some remarkable cosmetic changes to this beautiful building. We will begin work on the remaining three exterior walls and we will have completed the entire exterior renovations with the exception of the main cupola. We have shown that the City’s love for this opera house and dedication to the preservation of this structure is unwavering,” said Mayor Staffieri.

The renovations were done by a Kentucky based company, Campbellsville Industries “The Steeple People” who for over fifty years, has specialized in the renovation of opera houses, churches and other historically significant properties. The center or smaller cupola on the Sterling Opera House had almost completely deteriorated over the years. Campbellsville did a complete replication of the cupola. It was fabricated with aluminum, bronze, patina green and painted with period appropriate colors which were taken from historical pictures and duplicated.  Reinforcement of the roof structure to receive the cupola was needed and the area under the cupola needed to be completely roofed and made permanently watertight prior to its arrival and installation.  Subsequently, a foundation needed to be built that would support this enormous structure. The foundation was completed several weeks ago and the cupola is ready to be lifted, by crane placed atop the Sterling Opera House.

“There are many people to thank for the renovations which have taken place and those that will be completed shortly: Joseph Jalowiec , Attorney Joseph Coppola, Nicole Cignoli, members of the Sterling Opera House Inc., Markanthony Izzo, my office of Economic and Community Development and others who willingly volunteered their time and effort to help see these projects to fruition. I also wish to thank Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, State Senator Joseph Crisco, Representatives Linda Gentile and Themis Klarides, for their efforts over the years, to secure funding to help make this a reality. I know there are many others who have helped along the way and whom I wish to thank, but may have not mentioned.” Said Mayor Staffieri.

Posted April 24, 2008.