Historic Round Barn and Farm Market
Biglerville
This year, the Gettysburg area’s Historic Round Barn and Farm Market celebrates its 102nd anniversary as a rare true barrel barn, the name given to the picturesque barns that are completely round, without the flat sides of the more common hexagonal or octagonal round barns.
Due to its unusual architecture, requests to hold weddings at the barn started to flood in shortly after the current ownership, who took over the farm when the last living relatives of the original family could no longer farm the land, opened the upper level for their own festivals. In the past five years, they’ve gone into the events business in earnest, adding meetings, corporate events, anniversaries and showers to their offerings.
“We’re seasonal, May through October, and most every weekend we have something scheduled,” said co-owner Tonya White. “For corporate things and other events during the week, it’s not as big of a deal; we can do that in a month. But right now, for weekends, I’m booking 2017 and have had some inquiries for 2018 and 2019.”
White doesn’t offer groups a menu of activities, but rather starts with what the groups want to accomplish and what type of experience they’d like to have. She’s had corporate groups do pumpkin carving and scarecrow-building team building, guided nature walks on the 255-acre farm, and hayrides. “We have things to offer that I wouldn’t think of until someone asks,” she said. “One company wanted a really country experience, and we did a hoedown with a square dance caller and barbecue.”
The lower level of the barn continues to function as a farm market for produce from the working farm, but it has a separate entrance and parking lot from the event space on the second floor. “I’ve run weddings when we have the local apple harvest festival and zillions of people in here, and no one noticed,” said White.
Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple
Scranton
Though the Scranton Cultural Center opened in the historic Scranton Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite Cathedral only in 1986, the building has always been home to theater.
“Because of the immigrant populations, the northeast portion of the state was known for tough audiences, so a lot of vaudeville acts would play venues here as a proving ground for their acts,” said John Cardoni, the center’s general manager. “The Masons wanted to build a place to house the lodges in Scranton, but they were smart enough to know they would need some sort of income, so they built it for both theater events and [their own] balls and dinners.”
As the cultural center celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, it is as busy as when the building first opened in 1930 with events like that May’s 1,100-person Republican Women’s Victory Dinner. “We have days where we’re booked in all spaces,” said Cardoni. “We had a Friday night with Comedy Dojo in the junior ballroom, Rob Zombie in the ballroom, a private dinner on the third floor and an in-house series on the fourth floor.”
Due to the center’s diversity and number of rooms, small groups can often snag space with just 30 days’ notice, Cardoni said, especially for events that require only audiovisual and Wi-Fi. “You can call me two days out for a breakfast meeting, and we can probably do it,” he said.
The variety of events going on in the cultural center and, in particular, series like the American Wine Society’s monthly tastings and touring productions from the Broadway Theatre League, mean that groups have built-in entertainment for their events without having to hire outside groups or even transport attendees. After a meeting, groups can have hors d’oeuvres and then take in a major Broadway show — Cardoni is already planning to have perennially sold-out “Hamilton” when it goes on tour.
