It’s heartening to hear of the Butler Redevelopment Authority’s plan to return some of the history of the Penn Theater to its new owner so they can live on after his plans to refurbish the 84-year-old structure are complete.

The authority’s board last week voted to give the items — including two projectors, its classic theater seats and numerous movie posters — to new owner Bryan Frenchak.

Frenchak bought the building from the redevelopment authority for $65,000 last November. The authority purchased the building for $290,000 in 2009.

The items had been removed from the theater when the roof started leaking years ago, and the board wanted to give them to Frenchak as a way of preserving the building’s history.

The theater closed in 1991, as Butler’s retail economy, previously focused on Main Street, moved to outlying shopping centers. The theater was sold in 2001 but reopened briefly for live music and other events. Plans for necessary renovation and restoration grew expensive, and the theater closed again.

“We were worried about a lot of the valuable artifacts,” said Brian McCafferty, chairman of the redevelopment authority. “We had taken both projectors, a lot of light fixtures, boxes of movie posters; we housed them in our office — two of the original seats in the theater that still have the upholstery; there was one main projector that looked pretty old, and then a secondary — it's all in the interest of preserving it.”

When he purchased the theater, Frenchak said he would like to see it serve multiple uses upon its reconstruction.

“We’re planning a redesign of the theater to be a mixed-use type of venue,” Frenchak said. “It’ll make it more interactive, and we might have concerts a few nights a month, some comedy shows.”

Hopefully, it will bring new businesses and eateries to Main Street.

We wish Frenchak luck and hope to see some of those memories from the past in the theater when it reopens.

— JGG