Dobbs Ferry Lands Multi-Million State Grant

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The Pickwick in its most recent iteration (photo from Cinema Theaters web site)

March 12, 2025

By Barrett Seaman–

The Village of Dobbs Ferry got some “very exciting news” this week from New York Forward, the state‘s dispenser of community grants: $4.5 million earmarked for municipal improvements designed to “invigorate and enliven downtowns” throughout the state.

Dobbs applied for the grant last November, listing several aspirational projects, including renovating the old Pickwick Theater on Cedar Street, sprucing up the village’s parks, and, as Mayor Vincent Rossillo wrote in a message to residents, “improving the experience of visiting downtown Dobbs Ferry through upgraded pedestrian thoroughfares and public spaces, lighting and outdoor art.”

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How much each of these projects would cost—and subsequently how far the $4.5 million would go to cover those costs—is yet to be determined. “We’re going to meet over the next few weeks to decide,” Mayor Rossillo told The Hudson Independent.

Renovating the Pickwick Theater and restoring it as a live stage has appeal because it would significantly enhance the village’s arts and entertainment scene and draw ancillary business to Cedar Street’s many restaurants—much as the Tarrytown Music Hall draws paying customers to that village’s Main Street.

The Pickwick, once the Embassy Theater, has been in use on and off since 1928, according to the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Once housing a live stage that drew “Hollywood celebrities and Broadway stars,” then a movie theater that fell on hard times, the renamed Pickwick was for a while an x-rated art house. In 1933, it was the scene of a bombing. The theater went dark in 1982. Most recently, the space housed a Music Complex that included a sound studio.

Regardless of what its restoration would cost, says Mayor Rossillo, the theater is privately owned, meaning the village would need to buy it first. Other projects contemplated—upgrading sidewalks and parks along the corridor connecting the Metro North train station with downtown, for example—involve properties already owned by the village.

According to the mayor, the $4.5 million would probably not be earmarked for any single project but rather provide “seed money” for more than one. However it is allocated, the mayor wrote residents, the money will help “make Dobbs Ferry an even more vibrant place to live, work and visit.”

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