In 1984, The Grundy Foundation, located in Bristol, Pennsylvania, purchased an old pornographic movie house on the Delaware River, and invested over one million dollars to transform it into a state-of-the-art theater in the riverfront park. The finished theater combined the exciting possibilities of a large stage with the intimacy of a 300-seat theater, along with outstanding lighting and sound technology. The Grundy Foundation offered the theater to Repertory Theatre of Bucks County (REPCO), a company dedicated to developing new plays and playwrights, and Bucks County's first Equity Regional Theatre was born as the Bristol Riverside Theatre.