At its weekly meeting Thursday, the Buckhead Business Association heard a report on an atypical economic generator — the restoration of historic theaters.

Molly Fortune, director of restoration at the Fox Theatre in Midtown, spoke to attendees at the City Club of Buckhead about the theater’s latest outreach program.

“You many think, ‘What are you doing? An outreach program for a theater? That doesn’t make any sense,’” she said.

However, theater staff members have dedicated themselves to contributing time, expertise and funds to uplift other Georgia historic theaters.

Fortune was introduced by business association President-elect Catherine Cattles, who said the Fox hosts 450 events per year and expends an annual $1 million in capitol improvement projects.

Fortune said those projects are possible in part because the Fox, built in 1929, stands as No.2 ticket-sales theater in the world and the No. 1 profit theater in the U.S.

However, none of it would have happened if not for a group of Atlanta citizens and businesses who banded together to keep the Fox from demolition in the 1970s, she said.

“It was the first time in the history of the U.S. that public and private funds came together to save a building,” she said. “It really was an Atlanta effort to save this facility.”

Fortune said the outreach program is a way to share this success with the state’s 262 other historic theaters.

“Building renovation brings jobs and it’s an economic generator,” she said, adding the program mostly hires local craftspeople for the projects, which can last up to a year.

After the theater is in commission, it brings a host of other business opportunities to an area as well, Fortune said.

“You’ve got valets, restaurants, ticket takers,” she said. “We at the Fox, who have done so well, want to make historic theaters an economic drive in this state.”

Fortune said the Fox team recently completed a project at the 1928 Desoto Theater in Rome, which had sustained extensive water damage.

The team was able to restore 98 percent of the building’s plaster, she said.
“It became one of those pieces the downtown development authority can show to companies,” Fortune said.