The effort to restore the Penn Theater on Butler's Main Street has value from two perspectives. At one level, preservation of a downtown theater saves a landmark building from demolition or destruction by neglect. Beyond that, creating a venue for cultural activities such as specialty film events and musical performances can also help bring people into the city. And without people, Butler's broader revitalization efforts cannot succeed.

A front-page story in Sunday's Butler Eagle described the efforts of the Penn Theater Community Trust to bring the theater back to life. Recent work has focused on two main areas - the smaller upstairs movie theater, dubbed the Bantam Theater, and the larger, performance oriented theater, being called Lydia Hall, on the street level.

Volunteers, along with members of the non-profit group that bought the theater earlier this year are working with to remove previous renovation efforts and return the 66-year-old theater to it's original appearance.

Preservation is often reason enough to renovate and restore significant older buildings, but the Penn Theater project has the added appeal of having the potential draw people into downtown.

As one component of a larger Cultural District planned for the city, the Penn Theater is expected to attract people to the city for film events in the Bantam Theater or live performances in the larger Lydia Theater, which is expected to open by next spring.

Though clearly on a much smaller scale, Butler's efforts to develop downtown cultural attractions is not unlike Pittsburgh's Cultural District, which has been successful in bringing life, mostly night life, back to that city.

As difficult as it might be to accept, Butler is unlikely to ever see a return of the kind of vibrant retail activity it featured as recently as the 1950s and '60s, before suburban malls began to draw people out of most towns and cities. Faced with that reality, Butler will have to rethink what makes a viable Mane Street. This might well mean encouraging more of the sort of niche retailers now most visible on Main Street. Cultural programming in the city would also suggest more support for restaurants.

But even if more specialty retail shops appear, that alone is not enough to revitalize Main Street. A regular schedule of cultural events at a restored Penn Theater and other locations in the still-to-be-developed Cultural District can help being more people - and their dollars - to Main Street for entertainment, shopping and dining.

Cultural activities might bring people to the city, but downtown retailers, restaurants and other businesses also need to coordinate their efforts and try to offer the kinds of products, services - and hours - that appeal to the people coming downtown for cultural events.

There is plenty of work still to be done at the Penn Theater, but the efforts there are a hopeful sign that Main Street will be more lively and viable in the coming years.