Dobbs Ferry Poised to Revamp Theater into Live Performance Venue

Published 3 weeks ago3w ago • Bookmarks: 214 • Comments: 1

August 20, 2025

By Susan Treiman—

Imagine Dobbs Ferry as a lively theater, concert, and special events destination.

That’s exactly what’s being considered, thanks to a New York State Forward Grant that can help return a long- dormant movie house– now the site of a thriving music business –to its performance-space roots.

Support our Sponsors

The program earmarks $4.5 million to two villages in 10 districts throughout New York State, with funds intended to redevelop and re-energize downtown areas. The mid-Hudson award enables Dobbs Ferry, and fellow area winner Nyack, to pour additional resources into business districts.

Announced in May, the grant spawned an open call for proposals. Fourteen ideas, selected following the end-of-July submission deadline, will be formally reviewed by local officials and the public at a 6:15 p.m. Thursday evening meeting of the Local Planning Committee (LPC) at village hall.

Six of the initiatives will upgrade parks, public spaces, and sidewalks between the Dobbs Ferry Metro-North station and downtown. Several additional proposals structured as public-private partnerships will have costs shared by property owners and the village.

Probably the most eagerly anticipated initiative would revamp the former Embassy/Pickwick theater as a community arts venue. The site began life as a 1920s movie house and is steeped in local nostalgia.

“People still come in to look at the interior and recapture their memories,” said Peter Scattaretico, a co-owner.

He and brother, Paul Scattaretico, a long-time local, have run several entertainment and music-related businesses in Dobbs Ferry since 1982. In 1991, they acquired the four storefronts at 39 Cedar Street that house the Stolen Moments entertainment and event company, the Muzic store, Riverworks Recording studio, and a rental business supplying musical instruments to all the rivertowns school districts.

The brothers work from the former theater lobby, a few feet from 1920s-era marquee, amid many century-old flourishes. The theater that first seated roughly 500 movie-goers still sports an ornately decorated domed ceiling and some of the purple-velvet upholstered seats.

“We kept everything in its original form, hoping it would eventually be restored,” Paul said.

Early estimates suggest that the full renovation will cost roughly $700,000, depending on future adjustments to the project’s final scope and timetable. Although it’s believed that the state will defray 75 per cent of cost, with the Scattareticos footing 25 per cent of the bill, exact figures will likely change as plans proceed through three stages.

“At stage one, the theater will seat 150 people, stage two will have 250 seats, and the third stage will increase to 350 seats,” expected Paul, who predicted everything could be completed within two years

Still unresolved, though, is an anticipated shortage of downtown parking spaces. Several options are being considered to address the problem.

“I know there’s some way we can work this out,” Paul said

The venue that debuted as the Embassy, and was renamed the Pickwick, is believed to be the only rivertowns’ structure ever targeted for a terrorist bombing. In 1933, with a labor dispute raging, an unknown perpetrator detonated an explosive in the dead of night. The blast seriously damaged the venue and blew out windows at the nearby Zion Episcopal Church. Thankfully, nobody was injured. Cleaned up and repaired, cinema continued to screen firms – first regularly and later intermittently – throughout the 20^th century.

A full renovation would restore the existing marquee, reestablish the lobby, add a concession stand, reveal a ticket window now hidden behind a temporary wall, and return some long-forgotten decorative touches to their rightful spots.

“We still have additional seats in our basement, and we’ve hung on to other bits and pieces of the structure over the years,” Peter said.

Talks are currently underway to feature local restaurant fare at the yet-to-be-named space.

“A lot of our restaurants are very interested in being involved with us,” Paul said.

Dobbs Ferry residents have long argued that a downtown performance venue could bring their village the many benefits that both Irvington and Tarrytown already enjoy, thanks to their theaters. Those opinions were reconfirmed when dozens of surveyed at the village’s annual Fall Festa in 2024 overwhelmingly endorse the idea of bringing an entertainment venue to town.

“Many of the newer residents didn’t even realize that was possible while older residents, once they considered the idea, saw it as the perfect gem to polish the whole business district,” said Ed Trader, chairman of the volunteer Dobbs Ferry Downtown Committee.

For the Scattaretico brothers, it is more than a dream realized. It’s also a powerful opportunity to enhance cultural offerings and local engagement.

“We’d like to recreate a dance school, hold musical recitals, host open mike nights, schedule music seminars and poetry readings, and bring in some of the many accomplished people we know in the music business,” Paul said.

“There’s lots of potential,” he added.

Read or leave a comment on this story...

Support our Sponsors