Theater restoration brings small town back to life

WAILEA, Hawaii — A speaker here told the story of a small-town community coming together to restore a theater to help revitalize their local economy.

In a presentation during the Lifestyles section of Hawaiian Eye 2009, Peter Slack, president of Wyanoke Group, told the story of his efforts to purchase and restore the historic Broadway Theater in his hometown of Pitman, N.J., and how his community came together to bring that theater back to life.

While the theater had been up for bankruptcy several times over the years and even though he had no experience in show business or theaters, Mr. Slack said he felt that the theater was vital to the town's life. The theater had fallen into a state of disrepair over the years and was in need of a serious restoration.

Peter Slack

"We had a sign on the marquee that said 'cleanup volunteers wanted,' and on a Saturday morning, we had over 100 people show up at 7 in the morning, and they worked all day long to sweep and make repairs, just because they thought it was important enough to reopen this theater," Mr. Slack said.

Mr. Slack said a restoration architect brought in to assess the theater told him there were only a handful of venues like the Broadway left in the country and that he needed to open the doors soon or the theater would be beyond bringing back.

With the help of the community and a number of volunteers, the Broadway Theater of Pitman opened its doors in September 2006.

The plan to revitalize the town by reopening the theater has been a success.

"We had 105,000 frequenters of the theater, visiting shops and coming in and spending some time in town," Mr. Slack said. Since the theater opened, a restaurant, a cookie shop, a deli, an equestrian shop, a bead shop and a gym have all opened in the town, and another restaurant is about to open, he said.