Theater Destructions and Closure Cases
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The interior of the New Lyceum Theater, built by Thomas H. Bowles in Atlanta. Opening in 1895, the playhouse was destroyed by fire in 1901 and was not rebuilt.
Courtesy of Atlanta History Center, Atlanta History Photograph Collection.
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The former home of the Neighborhood Arts Center (which had recently moved) burns during a three-alarm fire on June 25, 1986. The intensity of the fire sent four firefighters to the hospital for smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion. Police suspected the fire was a work of racially targeted arson.
Copyright Jim Alexander. Courtesy of Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History, Neighborhood Arts Center Photographs Series, Jim Alexander Collection.
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Declining attendance in the 1960s led to the 1977 closure of the Loew's Grand Theater, site of the international premiere of Gone With the Wind. The abandoned theater caught fire on January 30, 1978, and the damage led to the historic venue's demolition.
Courtesy of Atlanta History Center, Norman F. Bielowicz Photographs, 1978.
While theaters suffered economic-based closures, fires were a common tragedy. Some theaters fell victim to natural disasters and others, potentially, to arson. When these disasters struck, many theaters lacked the resources or financial support to rebuild. The Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, where Gone With the Wind premiered, became the subject of great interest in the property wars of 1970s Atlanta. During a struggle for the theater's ideally situated yet legally protected historic space, it caught fire. Local reporters raised the possibility of arson, while preservationists lobbied unsuccessfully for the building's restoration. Today, the Georgia-Pacific Tower stands on the site once occupied by the Loew's Grand.