Built in 1926, The Seville Theatre, home to Bryn Mawr Film Institute since 2005, has captivated Main Line residents and visitors with cinema experiences since the early years of the medium. It’s difficult to imagine Bryn Mawr without its crown jewel on Lancaster Avenue, the beaux arts landmark designed by prolific Philadelphia architect and Frank Furness protégé William H. Lee, but the preservation and provenance of this historic landmark was never certain. Without the vision of a civic-minded leader, the commitment of a resourceful staff, and the support of a passionate community, Bryn Mawr’s world-class cinema and film education center would not exist.
KEY PLAYERS
Successful business owner, Bryn Mawr College alumna, and longtime Main Line resident Juliet Goodfriend witnessed the demise of neighboring Ardmore’s movie theater, which was retrofitted and quickly abandoned by a short-lived fitness chain. Goodfriend’s desire to save her beloved cinema met her serendipitously discovered passion for film studies, and the vision for Bryn Mawr Film Institute was born.
Goodfriend launched the rallying cry and started building a team. A fellow Bryn Mawr resident who shared Goodfriend’s passion for art, architecture, and community, Patricia Wesley, invested her design expertise, becoming BMFI’s founding director of development and communications, laying the groundwork for what you see today.
The “I” in “BMFI” was central to Goodfriend’s vision, so much so that she immediately hired an education director, Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., to create an original film studies curriculum—a rare and ambitious investment for a fledgling nonprofit. Douglas crafted an educational blueprint centered around film history, study, and appreciation that would be replicated in cinemas from Boston to Nashville and beyond in the following decades.
By the time “The Bryn Mawr” needed rescuing, John Toner of Renew Theaters had successfully restored, revitalized, and operated two Southeastern Pennsylvania cinemas, The Ambler and The County. Toner’s wisdom and guidance would prove indispensable, as Renew would implement and manage vital operational infrastructures that would catapult BMFI into a completely self-sustaining cinema in only five short years.
Many other essential voices answered Goodfriend’s call to action, including John Cluver of Voith & Mactavish, the lead architect who would restore and expand the derelict theater; former State Representative Connie Williams, who would champion Bryn Mawr’s landmark status for preservation; Alice Bullitt, BMFI’s first programmer who would become an instructor and leading director on the nonprofit’s board; Sam Scott, a community leader who would serve BMFI in various capacities through decades of transformation; and hundreds of others who devoted their time, money, and passion to conserve a communal artform on the verge of extinction.
In December 2004, the nonprofit Bryn Mawr Film Institute purchased the building at 824 West Lancaster Avenue thanks to Juliet Goodfriend’s vision and acumen. What resulted was a community of cultural preservationists who, over the course of two decades, would embrace, support, and elevate the dilapidated gym-to-be into a shining beacon in the art house industry and a beloved gathering place for film lovers of all kinds.
On March 12, 2005, after years of preparation, BMFI’s founder Juliet Goodfriend, joined by Academy Award-winning actor Sir Ben Kingsley, cinema preservationist John Toner, Rep. Connie Williams, and dozens of supporters gathered in a dark, drop-ceilinged hallway to cut the ceremonial film-reel-ribbon, welcoming its early moviegoers into a scruffy lobby space.
The physical state of the theater would be unrecognizable to today’s visitors. Moviegoers entered Lancaster Avenue doors to a darkened tunnel lined with abandoned storefronts. The sticky concessions lobby gave way to shoebox-like auditoriums, packed tightly with hard-backed seats abutting the rear entrances. Movies were perpetually interrupted with the light, sound, and conversations happening inches away from the swinging auditorium doors flanking the cramped popcorn counter.
BMFI’s transformation started immediately in whatever ad hoc spaces were available, from teaching classes in an alcove that would become the not-yet-envisioned elevator lobby, to a small administrative staff working wherever they could find space until the building’s second floor was habitable.
In October 2005, BMFI’s founding director of education, Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., introduced two programs that would become signature offerings for the next two decades: BMFI’s flagship film studies course, The Language of Film, and the third-grade visual literacy curriculum, See • Hear • Feel • Film. These would be the first two of hundreds of unique educational opportunities that thousands of film students would come to experience.
Through the tireless advocacy of BMFI’s founding director of development and communications, Patricia Wesley, the Lower Merion Township Historical Commission and Architectural Review Board granted BMFI a Historic Preservation Award in May 2005, which then supported a Keystone Historic Preservation Grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in the fall of that same year—as well as the theater’s addition to the National Register of Historic Places that December. These awards fueled the restoration of the original 70-foot skylight that crowns the theater’s now-grand atrium—a shocking discovery to Goodfriend and team, as there was no indication such an architectural treasure lay hidden under the flaking dropped ceiling upon purchasing the building. This was the first of many surprises that the restoration would uncover.
In 2005, with movies playing, education starting, renovation commencing, funds accumulating, staff creating, and community supporting, Juliet Goodfriend’s initial vision for Bryn Mawr Film Institute became a reality.
See all of the films shown at BMFI in 2005 on Letterboxd.
