Hidden store, other items from early 1900s discovered by Goshen Theater renovators

Part of downtown Goshen's history has been found in the Goshen Theater.

The theater is going through renovations, and construction workers are finding items from the early 1900s.

The construction workers will use what they found and incorporate it into the new theater. Old playbills and posters and a storefront are some of the items that have been found in the Goshen Theater.

It makes the people who work at the theater interested in its history.

For more than 100 years, the Goshen Theater has been a staple of the city's downtown.

Before it became a home for performances, the theater was called the Jefferson Theater and was a multipurpose space.

“From the original 1907 construction project in those original blueprints you can see the different areas were meant to be storefronts restaurants and things of that nature,” said Amber Burgess, managing director.

Construction workers found the storefront while renovating this year.

The store was called Good Year Shoe Repair, like Good Year tires.

“You don’t know what you’re going to find so our contractors are really, really careful when they’re taking certain things down because we don’t know what certain treasures we’re going to find in different places.”

The theater says there was a staircase that led from the street to the shoe repair shop. The Goshen Historical Society believes the shop was open in the early 1900s.

There have also found old rum bottles, cigarette packages, old playbills and posters from the 1900s.

Employees at the theater want to incorporate things they've found -- like the storefront -- and make them look new again.

“We are always thinking of ways that we can incorporate them and make them part of the history of the building and make them into something cool so that the public can see them too, because it’s part of the history of Goshen.”

The Goshen Theater is scheduled to be done by February.

There will be a bigger lobby, new bathrooms and an elevator that will access all floors -- and, of course, several of those artifacts will be on display.