Cascade Center
Encyclopedia
The Cascade Center at the Riverplex is an indoor and outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex located in downtown New Castle, Pennsylvania
, which opened in 2006. Much of the complex sits on the former site of the Cascade, the first movie theater of the Warner Bros.
, hence the name. The complex sits on the corner of East Washington Street and Mill Street. As of 2010, the complex is currently for sale.
, residents of nearby Youngstown, Ohio
, were sons of Polish Jews wanting to break into the then-fledgling film business. The brothers, after successfully showing a used copy of The Great Train Robbery at Idora Park
in Youngstown, traveled to New Castle to screen the movie in a vacant store on the site of what would become the Cascade Center. This makeshift theatre, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker. In 1906, the brothers purchased a small theater in New Castle near the Bijou, which they called the Cascade Movie Palace, taking its name from nearby Cascade Park. They maintained the theater until moving into film distribution in 1907.
Gradually over time, the building that housed the Bijou would host other business while the Cascade itself would eventually be demolished to make way for a parking lot
. The buildings themselves would become abandoned by the 1980s when New Castle, like most other Rust Belt
cities, saw the collapse of the steel
industry having a ripple effect in the region with the population dropping as well as the general suburbanization
effect that had been happening throughout the United States
since the 1950s.
By the mid-1990s, only two businesses were open on the site that would become the Cascade Center. One of them, Main Street Clothiers & Custom Tailors, is a men's suit
shop that was housed in the building that also housed the Bijou. The other would be the B&O Railroad
Federal Credit Union, a credit union
that was in a separate purpose-built building on the site bordering Mill Street and the Neshannock Creek and had actually been built on the site of the Cascade after the site was used as a parking lot.
In 1996, parts of the wall of the building that housed the Bijou collapsed onto East Washington Street, one of the cities main throughfares. The portion that collapsed was next door to Main Street Clothiers, which had just opened three years before on the site. The city of New Castle was very close to issuing a condemnation
notice to the building, but at the 11th hour the building's historical significance was discovered, saving the building. The city then announced redevelopment plans to make it what would eventually become the Cascade Center.
and stabilized the parts of the wall that had collapsed, closing off the sidewalk
in front of the building to prevent accidents until the wall could be completely rebuilt. The city was later able to persuade the B&O Credit Union—now the First Choice Federal Credit Union—to temporarily move into the nearby mall, the Cascade Galleria, so that the property could be bought and made into the Cascade Center. (The credit union eventually moved out of the mall back into their own building out in neighboring Union Township
.) Main Street Clothiers was allowed to stay in the building where they remain today, and although their portion of the building is not officially part of the Cascade Center they do advertise in the complex, and have even expanded their business by screen-printing
T-shirt
s as well as serving as the area's J. C. Penney
Catalog Center after Rite Aid
acquired Eckerd Pharmacy in 2007 and ended the J. C. Penney Catalog Center's in the former Eckerd locations after they were converted to Rite Aid. Coincidentally, Main Street sits next door to a former J. C. Penney (not the side that had the wall collapse) that is currently being remodeled and eventually having a coffee shop
open in the building.
Although the downtown streets & sidewalks were rebuilt in the early 2000s to resemble the turn of the 19th century, the complex itself wouldn't begin reconstruction until 2003 and was completed in 2006. The interiors of the existing buildings were completely gutted out while the site of the Cascade itself was completely rebuilt into a close replication of the Cascade. Both the old sections and the newly-built sections are like one building inside. The city was also able to acquire the former Mellon Bank
parking lot and rebuild it as the parking lot for downtown in general and the Cascade Center specifically. The alley
that ran along Neshannock Creek behind the buildings was permanently closed and added on to the property of the complex, which became a promenade
that leads to an outdoor amphitheater
between the former J. C. Penney building and the creek along East Washington Street. The northern terminus of Pennsylvania Route 65
(which runs along East Washington Street) was extended over a mile to near the complex on the other side of the creek.
Much like Station Square
in Pittsburgh, the complex is an example of adaptive reuse
, and focuses on the early years of motion pictures
much like Station Square focuses on train
s. The complex largely remains vacant, although businesses have started to open up and events being held both inside the complex and at the amphitheater. The complex has also help draw businesses to downtown.
Despite the historical connection to the Warner Bros. studio, the complex has no association with Time Warner
, the current parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Cass Warner, the granddaughter of Harry Warner
, did visit the complex just before it officially opened in 2006.
It should also be noted that Main Street Clothiers and Custom Tailors, while in the building where the Cascade Center is located, is not an official part of the complex, since it has outdoor access only instead of indoor access like the rest of the businesses and also was pre-existing before the creation of the complex.
New Castle, Pennsylvania
New Castle is a city in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States, northwest of Pittsburgh and near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border just east of Youngstown, Ohio; in 1910, the total population was 36,280; in 1920, 44,938; and in 1940, 47,638. The population has fallen to 26,309 according to the...
, which opened in 2006. Much of the complex sits on the former site of the Cascade, the first movie theater of the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, hence the name. The complex sits on the corner of East Washington Street and Mill Street. As of 2010, the complex is currently for sale.
History
The WarnersWarner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, residents of nearby Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, were sons of Polish Jews wanting to break into the then-fledgling film business. The brothers, after successfully showing a used copy of The Great Train Robbery at Idora Park
Idora Park, Youngstown
Idora Park was a northeastern Ohio amusement park popularly known as "Youngstown's Million Dollar Playground."Built by the Youngstown Park and Falls Street Railway Company, the park's expansion coincided with the growth of the South Side of Youngstown, Ohio, in the Fosterville neighborhood...
in Youngstown, traveled to New Castle to screen the movie in a vacant store on the site of what would become the Cascade Center. This makeshift theatre, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker. In 1906, the brothers purchased a small theater in New Castle near the Bijou, which they called the Cascade Movie Palace, taking its name from nearby Cascade Park. They maintained the theater until moving into film distribution in 1907.
Gradually over time, the building that housed the Bijou would host other business while the Cascade itself would eventually be demolished to make way for a parking lot
Parking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
. The buildings themselves would become abandoned by the 1980s when New Castle, like most other Rust Belt
Rust Belt
The Rust Belt is a term that gained currency in the 1980s as the informal description of an area straddling the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, in which local economies traditionally garnered an increased manufacturing sector to add jobs and corporate profits...
cities, saw the collapse of the steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
industry having a ripple effect in the region with the population dropping as well as the general suburbanization
Suburbanization
Suburbanization a term used to describe the growth of areas on the fringes of major cities. It is one of the many causes of the increase in urban sprawl. Many residents of metropolitan regions work within the central urban area, choosing instead to live in satellite communities called suburbs...
effect that had been happening throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
since the 1950s.
By the mid-1990s, only two businesses were open on the site that would become the Cascade Center. One of them, Main Street Clothiers & Custom Tailors, is a men's suit
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...
shop that was housed in the building that also housed the Bijou. The other would be the B&O Railroad
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
Federal Credit Union, a credit union
Credit union
A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its members...
that was in a separate purpose-built building on the site bordering Mill Street and the Neshannock Creek and had actually been built on the site of the Cascade after the site was used as a parking lot.
In 1996, parts of the wall of the building that housed the Bijou collapsed onto East Washington Street, one of the cities main throughfares. The portion that collapsed was next door to Main Street Clothiers, which had just opened three years before on the site. The city of New Castle was very close to issuing a condemnation
Occupancy
Occupancy in building construction and building codes is the use or intended use of a building or part thereof for the shelter or support of persons, animals or property. A closely related meaning is the number of units in such a building that are rented or leased, or otherwise in-use...
notice to the building, but at the 11th hour the building's historical significance was discovered, saving the building. The city then announced redevelopment plans to make it what would eventually become the Cascade Center.
Development
The city took most of the property by eminent domainEminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
and stabilized the parts of the wall that had collapsed, closing off the sidewalk
Sidewalk
A sidewalk, or pavement, footpath, footway, and sometimes platform, is a path along the side of a road. A sidewalk may accommodate moderate changes in grade and is normally separated from the vehicular section by a curb...
in front of the building to prevent accidents until the wall could be completely rebuilt. The city was later able to persuade the B&O Credit Union—now the First Choice Federal Credit Union—to temporarily move into the nearby mall, the Cascade Galleria, so that the property could be bought and made into the Cascade Center. (The credit union eventually moved out of the mall back into their own building out in neighboring Union Township
Union Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
Union Township is a township in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 5,103 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 9.7 square miles , of which, 9.6 square miles of it is land and...
.) Main Street Clothiers was allowed to stay in the building where they remain today, and although their portion of the building is not officially part of the Cascade Center they do advertise in the complex, and have even expanded their business by screen-printing
Screen-printing
Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate...
T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
s as well as serving as the area's J. C. Penney
J. C. Penney
-External links:*...
Catalog Center after Rite Aid
Rite Aid
Rite Aid is a drugstore chain in the United States and a Fortune 500 company headquartered in East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania, near Camp Hill. Rite Aid is the largest drugstore chain on the East Coast and the third largest drugstore chain in the U.S....
acquired Eckerd Pharmacy in 2007 and ended the J. C. Penney Catalog Center's in the former Eckerd locations after they were converted to Rite Aid. Coincidentally, Main Street sits next door to a former J. C. Penney (not the side that had the wall collapse) that is currently being remodeled and eventually having a coffee shop
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
open in the building.
Although the downtown streets & sidewalks were rebuilt in the early 2000s to resemble the turn of the 19th century, the complex itself wouldn't begin reconstruction until 2003 and was completed in 2006. The interiors of the existing buildings were completely gutted out while the site of the Cascade itself was completely rebuilt into a close replication of the Cascade. Both the old sections and the newly-built sections are like one building inside. The city was also able to acquire the former Mellon Bank
Mellon Financial
Mellon Financial Corporation, was one of the world's largest money management firms. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was in the business of institutional and high-net-worth-individual asset management, including the Dreyfus family of mutual funds; business banking; and shareholder and...
parking lot and rebuild it as the parking lot for downtown in general and the Cascade Center specifically. The alley
Alley
An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane found in urban areas, often for pedestrians only, which usually runs between or behind buildings. In older cities and towns in Europe, alleys are often what is left of a medieval street network, or a right of way or ancient footpath in an urban setting...
that ran along Neshannock Creek behind the buildings was permanently closed and added on to the property of the complex, which became a promenade
Esplanade
An esplanade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The original meaning of esplanade was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide clear fields of fire for the fortress' guns...
that leads to an outdoor amphitheater
Amphitheatre
An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
between the former J. C. Penney building and the creek along East Washington Street. The northern terminus of Pennsylvania Route 65
Pennsylvania Route 65
Pennsylvania Route 65 is a major state highway located in western Pennsylvania, United States. The route, traveling north–south from the Interstate 279/U.S...
(which runs along East Washington Street) was extended over a mile to near the complex on the other side of the creek.
Much like Station Square
Station Square
Station Square is a indoor and outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex located in the South Shore neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in Pittsburgh, the complex is an example of adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an old site or building for a purpose other than which it was built or designed for. Along with brownfield reclamation, adaptive reuse is seen by many as a key factor in land conservation and the reduction of urban sprawl...
, and focuses on the early years of motion pictures
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
much like Station Square focuses on train
Train
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
s. The complex largely remains vacant, although businesses have started to open up and events being held both inside the complex and at the amphitheater. The complex has also help draw businesses to downtown.
Despite the historical connection to the Warner Bros. studio, the complex has no association with Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
, the current parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Cass Warner, the granddaughter of Harry Warner
Harry Warner
Harry Morris Warner was an American studio executive, one of the founders of Warner Bros., and a major contributor to the development of the film industry. Along with his three brothers Warner played a crucial role in the film business and played a key role in establishing Warner Bros...
, did visit the complex just before it officially opened in 2006.
Tenants
Although at one point the complex had three tenants, in 2010 all three closed for unknown reasons and the complex was put up for sale. The outdoor promenade and amphitheater, which are publicly-owned, are still used by the city for downtown events.It should also be noted that Main Street Clothiers and Custom Tailors, while in the building where the Cascade Center is located, is not an official part of the complex, since it has outdoor access only instead of indoor access like the rest of the businesses and also was pre-existing before the creation of the complex.