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All stories have a beginning. For the Rowland Theatre in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, the screenplay began with a fire, an idea and the opening in 1917 of the 1,000-seat playhouse. The Rowland Story is a story of perseverance and survival for a small-town theatre that reached its 100th anniversary in 2017. The tale of how it got to the centennial is filled with highs and lows. From silent films to talkies, through two World Wars and the turbulent decades of the Sixties and Seventies and beyond, the theatre is a testament to a community that would not let it die. The Rowland Story also takes the reader on a journey throughout the latter half of the 19th century in a land of coal mines and railroads, where a young man named Charles Rowland got his start. A member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a business entrepreneur, a family man and, most of all, a benefactor to all who asked, Charles Rowland embodied the life of a selfless man. The Rowland Theatre is his lasting legacy. The Rowland Story shares more than a century of photos and details about the life of the theatre and the man behind the name.
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