Friends of Stewart Park, in partnership with Wharton Studio Museum (WSM) which has been leading the effort to develop the historic Wharton Studio building for the past decade, plan to create the Wharton Studio & Cafe in the lakefacing section of the building. This adaptive re-use of a historic building will encompass exhibit space, a cafe, a park center office and a lakefront terrace, making this former movie production studio a vibrant cultural and recreational destination within the park for residents and visitors.
The Wharton Studio building buzzed with movie making activity from 1915 to 1919 as filmmaking brothers Theodore and Leopold Wharton produced hundreds of silent films and serials starring some of the best known actors of the day: Irene Castle, Lionel Barrymore, Pearl White and a young Oliver Hardy. The Whartons were pioneers in an emerging art form and industry and they and their Ithaca studio left an indelible mark on early American moviemaking. After the Whartons left Ithaca, two other production entities took over the production space and made a few films there. By 1921, all filmmaking in the studio had ceased.
The Wharton Studio building, one of only a handful of early motion picture studios remaining in the country. is the single most significant artifact from that era, yet it has faded into anonymity as a Department of Public Works (DPW) storage and maintenance facility. WSM, which has been working since 2009 to broaden awareness of this unique local history and the studio building,through all kinds of programming, is thrilled to be partnered with FSP on this exciting project, a cornerstone of the overall revitalization of Stewart Park and Ithaca’s waterfront.
While the future Wharton Studio Park Center will allow the DPW function to remain, the building, a focal point on the Finger Lakes Film Trail will be brought back to life and serve the public in an exciting way through its exhibit space and cafe with outdoor seating. The exhibit area will feature multimedia displays and installations about Ithaca's movie history curated by Wharton Studio Museum (WSM). The space will be rentable to the public for events and parties.
In 2016, WSM received a Tompkins County Tourism Program Capital Grant for a planning and design study for the Wharton Studio building. This planning document, Re- Envisioning the Wharton Studio Building: Transforming an Ithaca Landmark, paved the way for the current plan for the Wharton Studio Park Center.
Summer 2021 saw completion of the first all-season restrooms in the park, located in the Wharton Studio Building. This important project was spearheaded and brought to fruition by Friends of Stewart and Wharton Studio Museum and it laid the groundwork for the next stages of developing the Wharton Studio Park Center. The restrooms will eventually connect to the cafe and exhibit space through an interior hallway.
In 2021 Wharton Studio Museum was allotted $100,000 by the City of Ithaca as part of its 2022 Budget, specifically to develop all the design, construction, and bid documents for the Wharton Studio Park Center. In addition to FSP and WSM, the project team comprises Bero Architecture in Rochester, NY; and Taitem Engineering, Andy Sciarabba Engineering, Trowbridge/Wolf/Michaels Landscape Architects, and Joe Lamarre of Uncommonplace, all from Ithaca. In 2023, thanks, in part, to the advocacy of New York State District 125 Assemblymember Anna Kelles, $250,000 in New York State Economic Development Funds has been allocated from the NYS State Assembly for the project.
Friends of Stewart Park is thrilled to be partnered with Wharton Studio Museum in this exciting endeavor.
