The Picture House will go dark this spring in Pelham, but reopen with its unique interior features more brightly lit and refurbished next fall.
The 89-year-old theater at 175 Wolf”™s Lane, saved from demolition and replacement by a bank office several years ago and acquired by a nonprofit in 2005, will close in May for a four-month, approximately $1 million renovation project designed to increase its draw as a regional film and educational center where popcorn is served.
The interior renovation is the first phase of a design project led by the Manhattan architectural firm Davis Brody Bond Aedas L.L.P. The center”™s operators hope to receive village approval for a two-story, 5,000-square-foot addition to the Picture House on Brookside Avenue that will include a 98-seat theater and film education institute, said Jennifer Christman, executive director of The Picture House Regional Film Center Inc.
The nonprofit in early 2008 launched a capital campaign for the expansion and renovation. “The economy kind of tanked on us in the middle of the campaign,” said Christman, “so we kind of ratcheted back the scale of the project,” eliminating one of the two theater screens planned for the addition.   ?Still the theater reached a campaign milestone in December, when it received $200,000 in donations that allowed renovations to proceed. Christman said donations to date amount to 50 percent to 55 percent of the group”™s undisclosed campaign goal.
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The nonprofit center has been greatly aided by government grants. State Sen. Jeffrey Klein this month presented a $100,000 grant for theater renovations and last year obtained another $100,000 grant for the expansion project, said Lizzie Cooper, the center”™s director of development. The state Office of Community Renewal awarded the center a $200,000 New York Main Street grant for renovations. U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey secured a federal Save America”™s Treasures grant for the Pelham center, Cooper said.
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The renovations, designed by the Pelham firm Raymond Beeler Architect P.C., will expose and highlight the theater”™s distinctive wooden trusses and timbers supporting a high barnlike roof and the building”™s brick support columns. Lighting will be upgraded and acoustical panels added to walls to improve sound in a theater built in the days of silent movies. New seats, similar to those at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, will reduce the theater”™s capacity from 393 persons to 300 and provide more leg room.
The lobby will be expanded to better accommodate receptions and the concessions counter upgraded. Bathrooms and the theaterӪs rebuilt stage will be made handicapped-accessible. ?Christman said the theater regularly partners with local businesses. Its concession area will sell baked goods from Provisions, a Pelham bakery and caf̩ owned by Nanette Connors. For its Reel Insider film series launched last July, the center has a working partnership with Blue Dog Wines and Spirits in Pelham and Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. in Pleasantville.
“We do a lot of that stuff,” Christman said. “There”™s a synergy with businesses and we partner with them on programs.
“We”™re an independent cultural organization, so we want to encourage independent businesses,” Christman said. “When we do well, other people do well,” including local restaurants, she said.
“In general, people in the village are very, very supportive of the (renovation and expansion) project,” she said. “They know it”™s a big part of the economic revitalization” in Pelham.
