EPHRAIM, Sanpete County — Gazing over the gold-toned concert hall at the dedication of the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Center for the Performing Arts at Snow College, Spencer Eccles recalled the line in the "Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy says, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
"Sanpete County never looked like this before," said Eccles, a trustee of the foundation that gave $1.5 million to help build the $17.9 million facility. "Wow. What a wonderful, wonderful and long overdue facility."
Community leaders, Snow College students and hundreds of local residents gathered Friday night to celebrate completion of the 90,000-square-foot structure, now the largest building on the Snow campus.
It includes a concert hall, recital hall, two theaters, a scenery shop, practice rooms, classrooms and offices. College officials say it is one of the few arts facilities in the nation on a two-year campus that has separate performance halls for music and theater.
Also recognized during the dedication program was Greg Horne, representing the Seth and Maurine Horne family of Orem and Arizona, who donated $500,000 to complete the funding package. The late Seth Horne founded a large construction and development firm. Snow has renamed its music department the Seth and Maurine Horne School of Music.
During the program, President Michael Benson announced two additional $100,000 gifts — one from Doris and the late MacCoy Larsen of Ephraim and the second from Keith and the late Vaneece Barrett of Salina. He said the college hoped the gifts would be the beginning of a growing endowment to attract talented performing arts students to Snow.
The president announced that the recital hall in the facility would be renamed the Doris and MacCoy Larsen Recital Hall, while the elaborate lobby would be renamed the Keith and Vaneece Barrett Lobby.
In a surprise performance, Benson took a seat at one of the Eccles Center's new Steinway pianos and accompanied the college jazz band in a Gershwin number during Friday's program.
Earlier, a different Steinway was brought to the president's home in Ephraim so he could practice. Eccles announced that the Eccles Foundation would donate the 5-foot Steinway as a permanent fixture at the president's house.
Sen. Leonard Blackham, R-Moroni, who gave dedicatory remarks and the dedicatory prayer, recognized Rep. Bradley Johnson, R-Aurora, and Rep. Mike Styler, R-Nephi, who helped add $15.9 million for the structure to a building bond passed by the 2002 Legislature.
Designed by the architectural firm of Gould Evans, the building won one of three honor awards in this year's Utah American Institute of Architects competition. The contractor was Layton Construction of Salt Lake City.
Snow College has emphasized performing arts almost since its founding in 1888. In 1894, vocal music was added to the curriculum. In 1897, the first band was organized. And in 1910, the first play was produced.
Today, Snow is one of the few two-year institutions in the nation whose music program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.
E-mail: sd@manti.com