Sharon Goodspeed was driving with Suzanne McShane Hall on their way to the Lansdowne Theater and she paused for a moment to share her awe.
“I can’t believe this is actually happening,” Goodspeed said.
McShane Hall understood.
As a board member of the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corp., people had been reaching out to her all day.
“Tonight’s the night!” they said.
“People have been calling me all day,” McShane Hall chuckled. “It was like I was having a baby or something.”
The anticipation had been decades in the making.
Opened initially in 1927, the Lansdowne Theater at 31 N. Lansdowne Ave. was shuttered in 1987 after a fire.
For years, it sat vacant.
In 2007, the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corp. bought it and plunged into extensive renovations to bring it back to its full glory. On, Friday, the theater officially opened with Chazz Palminteri’s “A Bronx Tale.”
“I am just so excited that we’re finally here because it’s been a goal for so long,” McShane Hall said, adding, “It’s kind of weird. We’re now the landlords and we can’t just walk in but that was the goal and it just is awesome. It’s so exciting.”
Matt Schultz, executive director/CEO of the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corp., is credited, along with Bob Jara, board president of the group, with being the driving forces behind the restoration.
The concession stand was a flurry of activity at the opening night at the Lansdowne Theater Friday. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY – DAILY TIMES)
“We’ve met the goal,” Schultz said in the theater’s lobby Friday night. “The goal was to return the Lansdowne Theater to public entertainment and we’ve done that. We’ve created a really special space and I can see it on the look on people’s faces that they recognize that it’s a special space.”
Jara agreed, “It’s so interesting to have everything come to the end … Matt says the ghost of 1927 will be coming out, going like, ‘This ain’t a movie.’ “
McShane Hall spoke of the theater’s grandeur and how she remembered it.
“This is supposed to be like when you walked in in 1927,” she said of the renovations. “When I was here in the ’60’s and ’70’s, … it was showing a little worn.”
But, it was still a good time.
Back then, the theater showed contemporary movies. Now, through promoter BRE Presents, it will host live performances.
Steve Eberle, left, and Donna Kelly Romero, both board members of the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corp., enjoy the opening of the theater. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY – DAILY TIMES)
‘Grew up here’
On Friday, many, like McShane Hall, remembered past times visiting the Lansdowne Theater for a show.
For her and all of her classmates from St. Philomena’s, all day Saturdays were spent watching double features at the theater.
“For me, I grew up here, every Saturday,” McShane Hall said.
Her friend, Sharon Goodspeed, who also grew up in Lansdowne, had a similar affinity.
“The very first movie I saw here was ‘Gone With the Wind’,” she said. “So, it means a lot to have this back.”
She recalled doing a tour back in the spring.
Sharon Goodspeed takes a picture of Suzanne McShane Hall and Chris Blidan, right, at the opening of the restored Lansdowne Theater. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY – DAILY TIMES)
“I said to Matt when we did a tour on the Delco Gives Day, I said, ‘It’s more beautiful than when I actually came here as a child,’ ” Goodspeed said.
They along with their friend, Chris Blidan from Media, spoke about the impact the now-opened theater will have on the town and surrounding areas.
Economic ripples
Goodspeed is director of sales at the Drexelbrook and she’s already seeing the ripple effect.
“There was a production company that came in pre-renovation,” she said. “They stayed at the hotel for months, filming here.”
Looking forward, there’s a group called Killer Queen, a Queen tribute band, and they’ve already booked their stay at the Drexelbrook for when they’re performing at the Lansdowne Theater.
“I’ve seen what the Media Theater has done for Media,” Bliden said. “And this is on a different level.”
Steve Eberle and Donna Kelly Romero both grew up in Lansdowne.
“It’s surreal,” Romero said of the theater’s transformation. “We were little kids the last time we were here.”
She remembered seeing “ET” and “The Natural” at the Lansdowne.
“I saw my first movie here,” Eberle said. “My first movie was ‘The Fox and the Hound.’ ”
Romero recalled some of the former traditions of seeing a show there.
“That was the coolest thing before the movie: just staring at the chandelier, waiting for it to dim,” she said.
Eberle shared how it even had its charm and memories in its darker days.
“Even when it was abandoned and musty, I walked in, I had this craving for Junior Mints,” he said as Romero recalled smelling popcorn when she first visited the space three years ago.
Merchants along Lansdowne Avenue were also ready for visitors coming to town for the theater’s opening. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY – DAILY TIMES)
The fire, prior revival tries
Romero remembered when the 1987 fire damaged the theater.
“I think we felt like, ‘Oh there’s a fire, they’re going to fix it. It’s going to open back up,’ ” she said.
Eberle also recalled an earlier effort, not associated with the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corp., to try to save it.
“I remember my dad bought us all pins,” he said, noting they read, “Save the Lansdowne Theater.”
“I had a button in my (high school) locker,” Romero said. “I had it on my bookbag. And they had little coffee cans all around town where you could put your change in. So, I’d always put my change in.”
When Eberle returned to the area five years ago, he decided to join the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corp. board.
“I moved back to Lansdowne in 2020 after 20 years in Baltimore,” he said. “I knew I wanted to be involved in the community.”
With experience in community organizing in the nonprofit world, Eberle wanted to boost the borough.
“For me, it was less about the art than the economic development,” he said. “Delaware County deserves more.”
‘Labor of love’
Then, he encouraged his lifelong friend, Romero, to join the board.
“I used to teach English and I used to teach Bruce Springsteen’s song ‘My Hometown’ ” she said.” Most of his songs are actually sad: the whitewashed windows of my hometown, what it used to be. I used to teach the songs and this is kind of what my hometown is becoming: a shadow of what it had been.
“Then, you see towns like Media that had its renaissance,” she continued, saying she asked herself, “Why can’t that happen in Lansdowne?”
Romero said she liked the switch from movies to live performances.
“I was OK with it not being a movie theater when I heard it was going to be a concert venue,” she said. “I thought, ‘Even better. That’s what we need. That’s what we probably always needed.’ “
Romero praised Schultz and Jara for their dedication.
“This was a labor of love, mostly for Matt and Bob specifically,” she said. “It’s been so inspiring for me to see those two just pursue this relentlessly with such a fervor.”
She noted the naysayers along the way.
“We both heard people say, ‘It’s never going to happen,’ ” she said, adding, “They’re doing it right and they’re doing it in a way that generations will be able to enjoy it.”
On Friday, as she and hundreds of others filled the theater, Romero paused to take in all the architectural beauty.
“This,” she said, “is stunning.”
Dinner, shopping, show
Sisters Betty Ann Mager and Kelly Sacchetti had dinner at Backstage Tap + Grille across the street before going to the Lansdowne Theater’s first show in nearly four decades.
Sisters Kelly Sacchetti, left, and Betty Ann Mager were among the crowd at the first show at the Lansdowne Theater in decades. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY – DAILY TIMES)
“We’re so excited that this is opening and we can’t wait to see what it does for the whole general area,” Sacchetti said.
Mager remembered some of the previous times she had been there.
“The last time I was here was in the ’80’s,” she said, “It was so much fun. We used to go in the theater upstairs, too. They had sci-fi movies up there. Really cool.”
They lived in Collingdale then and went to the Lansdowne Theater on a regular basis.
“The place was great,” Mager said. “They had all the up-to-date movies and everything. Even though the seats were torn and all that stuff, it was still a neat thing to be in. You knew that things went on before you were there. They said vaudeville shows and things like that were on the stage.”
She shared how she and her sister came to town before the show for dinner, then visited some stores.
“We went there,” she said of Backstage Tap + Grill, “and then, we went in an antique shop. Then, we went in the records store. This whole area will flourish because of this and because of the people.”
She is looking forward to what will come as she enjoyed seeing all of the enthusiasm of the evening.
“It’s exciting,” Mager said. “When you see everybody walking around here and going in all these stores and then, you get to see this theater that has been here forever and see something new, it’s just rebirth.”
Originally Published: August 23, 2025 at 10:56 AM EDT