Historic New Castle theater reopens for event venue and, yes, some movies

New Castle’s historic Castle Theater has been reopened – again – after being a staple of the city’s downtown since 1935.  IPR’s Thomas Ouellette reports on what has changed for the landmark.

Once a single-screen first-run theater, the Castle Theater closed for the first time in 2010.  It briefly opened back up in 2018.  When it closed a second time, members of the community like Emily Hurst felt like they lost more than just a movie theater.

“My daughter was born in 2018 and I remember thinking ‘Oh, her first movie won’t be there,’ and that was a really sad moment for me, because I thought, in my family, going back probably four generations, that was where everyone saw their first movie,” Hurst said.

After a nearly million-dollar renovation that took several years, the Cook family has re-opened The Castle as an event venue with some updated features.

The concession stand and theater floor have been completely redone.  Also inside the theater, seats have been removed to make space for a large stage platform, tables, and chairs.

The inside of The Castle Theater in New Castle (Thomas Ouellette/IPR)

Jennifer Cook says she is proud to help preserve such an important landmark for the city

“It’s great to be able for people to come back and have those memories, but it’s a little different with the stage and everything, and some of the seats missing and stuff,” said Cook. “I’m just happy that we could do this, and people could use it again, and it can be an asset to the community”

The Castle will still show movies on select nights. The Cook family says having The Castle run exclusively as a movie theater would have likely resulted in another closure, due to the expense of having to upgrade the projector system for first-run movies.  They say giving it the flexibility of running as an event space will help ensure The Castle stays alive and relevant for years to come.

The renovation of the theater saw financial support from the New Castle Main Street’s Building Renovation Assistance Program. Cook says that the project couldn’t have happened without such generous community support.

More than 200 people attended the theater’s grand-opening.

Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer.  Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu