Robert H. Jackson Center, project contractors and city officials during the ground breaking ceremony at the center Wednesday. The Jackson Center received $1.5 million from the state Downtown Revitalization Initiative program for the renovation project. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

A new look is coming to the Robert H. Jackson Center.

On Wednesday, Jackson Center, contractors and city officials gathered for the ground breaking ceremony for the $1.5 million project at the facility.

The center will receive $1.5 million from the state Downtown Revitalization Initiative program for the project. The state funding will go toward renovating the most significant needs that were accessed by Clark Patterson Lee, the architectural, engineering, planning and design business that created a five-year master plan for the center, located at 305 E. Fourth St.

The renovation project will include a more welcoming interior entrance area, with a more open entryway to improve the gathering space for people when they visit the center for a presentation in the theater.

In the theater, a sound buffering shed will be constructed outside the emergency exit to dampen the sound from vehicle and pedestrian traffic along East Fifth Street. A new backstage area will also be created to provide adequate space for presenters and performers before theater events.

The Jackson Center is housed in the historic Alonzo Kent Mansion and former Masonic Lodge, which was rehabilitated in the early 2000s when the center was created, to accommodate administrative offices, a museum, exhibit space and meeting and programming facilities. The mansion was built in 1859-60 by Kent, a wealthy businessman and president of the former First National Bank of Jamestown. The style chosen for this house was Italianate, which was just beginning to grow in popularity the decade prior to the Civil War.

See Thursday’s edition of The Post-Journal for more coverage.