Cascade Center
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The Cascade Center at the Riverplex is an indoor and outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment complex located in downtown
New Castle, Pennsylvania New Castle is a city in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lawrence County. It is northwest of Pittsburgh, and near the Pennsylvania–Ohio border, just southeast of Youngstown, Ohio. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, ...
, opened in 2006. Much of the complex sits on the former site of the Cascade, the first movie theater of the
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...
The complex is at the corner of East Washington Street and Mill Street. As of 2013, the complex is owned by Riverplex Partners, Inc. The top three stories are rented by Refresh Dental Management as their corporate headquarters.


History

The Warners, residents of nearby
Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, Mahoning County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of ...
, were sons of
Polish Jew The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...
s wanting to break into the then-fledgling film business. The brothers, after successfully showing a used copy of '' The Great Train Robbery'' at ''
Idora Park Idora Park was a Victorian era trolley park in north Oakland, California constructed in 1904 on the site of an informal park setting called Ayala Park on the north banks of Temescal Creek. It was leased by the Ingersoll Pleasure and Amusement P ...
'' in Youngstown, traveled to New Castle to screen the movie in a vacant store on the site of what would become the Cascade Center.Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 54–55. This makeshift theatre, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker. In 1906, the brothers purchased a small theater in New Castle near the Bijou, which they called the Cascade Movie Palace, taking its name from nearby Cascade Park. They maintained the theater until moving into film distribution in 1907. Gradually over time, the building that housed the Bijou would host other business while the Cascade itself would eventually be demolished to make way for a
parking lot A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...
. The buildings themselves became abandoned by the 1980s when New Castle, like most other
Rust Belt The Rust Belt is a region of the United States that experienced industrial decline starting in the 1950s. The U.S. manufacturing sector as a percentage of the U.S. GDP peaked in 1953 and has been in decline since, impacting certain regions and ...
cities, saw the collapse of the
steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
industry having a ripple effect in the region with the population dropping as well as the general
suburbanization Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses out of the city centers, low-density, peripheral urba ...
effect that had been happening throughout the United States since the 1950s. By the mid-1990s, only two businesses were open on the site that would become the Cascade Center. One of them, Main Street Clothiers & Custom Tailors, is a men's
suit A suit, lounge suit, or business suit is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt suit is similar, but with a matching skirt instead of tr ...
shop that was housed in the building that also housed the Bijou. The other would be the
B&O Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
Federal Credit Union, a
credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including depo ...
that was in a separate purpose-built building on the site bordering Mill Street and the
Neshannock Creek Neshannock Creek is a long tributary to Shenango River that forms at the confluence of Cool Spring and Otter Creek in Mercer County and then flows south to Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. This creek is known for its fly fishing at Volant, Penns ...
and had actually been built on the site of the Cascade after the site was used as a parking lot. In 1996, parts of the wall of the building that housed the Bijou collapsed onto East Washington Street, one of the cities main thoroughfares. The portion that collapsed was next door to Main Street Clothiers, which had just opened three years before on the site. The city of New Castle was very close to issuing a condemnation notice to the building, but at the 11th hour the building's historical significance was discovered, saving the building. The city then announced redevelopment plans to make it what would eventually become the Cascade Center.


Development

The city took most of the property by
eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
and stabilized the parts of the wall that had collapsed, closing off the
sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick ...
in front of the building to prevent accidents until the wall could be completely rebuilt. The city was later able to persuade the B&O Credit Union—now the First Choice Federal Credit Union—to temporarily move into the nearby mall, the Cascade Galleria, so that the property could be bought and made into the Cascade Center. (The credit union eventually moved out of the mall back into their own building out in neighboring Union Township.) Main Street Clothiers was allowed to stay in the building where they remain today, and although their portion of the building is not officially part of the Cascade Center they do advertise in the complex, and have even expanded their business by
screen-printing Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...
T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...
s as well as serving as the area's
J. C. Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...
Catalog Center after
Rite Aid Rite Aid Corporation is an American drugstore chain based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1962 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Alex Grass under the name Thrift D Discount Center. The company ranked No. 148 in the Fortune 500 lis ...
acquired
Eckerd Pharmacy Eckerd Corporation was an American drug store chain that was headquartered in Largo, Florida, and toward the end of its life, in Warwick, Rhode Island. The chain had approximately 2,800 stores in 23 states as far west as Arizona. In November 199 ...
in 2007 and ended the J. C. Penney Catalog Center's in the former Eckerd locations after they were converted to Rite Aid. Coincidentally, Main Street sits next door to a former J. C. Penney (not the side that had the wall collapse) that is currently being remodeled and eventually having a coffee shop open in the building. Although the downtown streets & sidewalks were rebuilt in the early 2000s to resemble the turn of the 19th century, the complex itself wouldn't begin reconstruction until 2003 and was completed in 2006. The interiors of the existing buildings were completely gutted out while the site of the Cascade itself was completely rebuilt into a close replication of the Cascade. Both the old sections and the newly built sections are like one building inside. The city was also able to acquire the former
Mellon Bank Mellon Financial Corporation was an investment firm which was once one of the world's largest money management firms. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was in the business of institutional and high-net-worth individual asset management, inc ...
parking lot and rebuild it as the parking lot for downtown in general and the Cascade Center specifically. The
alley An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in the older parts of towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane ...
that ran along Neshannock Creek behind the buildings was permanently closed and added on to the property of the complex, which became a
promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...
that leads to an outdoor
amphitheater An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
between the former J. C. Penney building and the creek along East Washington Street. The northern terminus of
Pennsylvania Route 65 Pennsylvania Route 65 (PA 65, also known as the 65th Infantry Division Memorial Highway), is a major state highway located in western Pennsylvania, United States. The route, traveling north–south from the Interstate 279/ U.S. Route 19 Truck (I ...
(which runs along East Washington Street) was extended over a mile to near the complex on the other side of the creek. Much like
Station Square Station Square is a indoor and outdoor shopping and entertainment complex located in the South Shore neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States across the Monongahela River from the Golden Triangle of downtown Pittsburgh. Station S ...
in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, the complex is an example of
adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...
, and focuses on the early years of
motion pictures A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
much like Station Square focuses on
train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...
s. The complex largely remains vacant, although businesses have started to open up and events being held both inside the complex and at the amphitheater. The complex has also help draw businesses to downtown. Despite the historical connection to the Warner Bros. studio, the complex has no association with
Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with D ...
, the current parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Cass Warner, the granddaughter of
Harry Warner Harry Morris Warner (born Hirsz Mojżesz Wonsal; December 12, 1881 – July 25, 1958) was an American studio executive, one of the founders of Warner Bros., and a major contributor to the development of the film industry. Along with his three y ...
, did visit the complex just before it officially opened in 2006.


Tenants

Although at one point the complex had three tenants, in 2010 all three closed for unknown reasons and the complex was put up for sale. The outdoor promenade and amphitheater, which are publicly owned, are still used by the city for downtown events. Main Street Clothiers and Custom Tailors, while in the building where the Cascade Center is located, is not an official part of the complex, since it has outdoor access only instead of indoor access like the rest of the businesses and also was pre-existing before the creation of the complex. Reinvestment in the center has picked up in recent years, with the Two Rivers Coffee Shop and The Commonwealth restaurant both opening in 2014.


References

{{Coord, 40.9997, -80.3439, region:US-PA_type:landmark, display=title Urban planning Buildings and structures in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania New Castle, Pennsylvania