With two $750,000 grants from the National Parks Service, the Atlanta Business League is taking its first steps in turning the long-vacant Ashby Theatre into a multi-use business and community center in westside Atlanta.
The 91-year-old Atlanta Business League fosters economic empowerment and provides business development opportunities for Black-owned businesses in the metro area. In 2002, CEO Leona Barr-Davenport brought a proposal to the board: buying out the historic movie theater next to its offices, the former Henderson Travel Service – the country’s first Black travel agency.
“I said to [the board chair] I’d like for us to buy the theater with that vision of being able to develop a center or a true headquarters for the Atlanta Business League, and so we took it before the board, the board approved, and we purchased the theater,” Barr-Davenport said. “We’ve just held onto it all this time.”
The building sat unoccupied and unmaintained for years before the business league could do anything with it. CEO Leona Barr-Davenport said the plan to renovate the historic Black business has been discussed for “over a decade,” and she has tried for years to make it happen.
“Personally, I want to ensure our history is not being lost,” Barr-Davenport said.
The CEO said that without some sort of plaque or preservation, within 10-20 years, “no one will ever know” that there was life before now.
“I’m just excited that we’re seeing it begin to come to fruition,” Barr-Davenport said.
The grants come thanks to Jay Scott, a longtime landscape architect that specializes in historic preservation. His grant writing skills have earned funds for projects like Mother Trinity Church in Augusta and The HIstoric West Center Street Baptist Church in Atlanta.
“Our goal is to restore as many of these properties as possible,” Scott said. “Until fairly recently, the only properties that were recognized and thought worthy of restoration were white properties.”
With a focus on prioritizing the stories of Black communities, he set his sights on the Ashby Street Theater. Opened in 1934, it was one of the first theaters to serve the African American community as part of the Bailey Theater chain. It was a hub for Atlanta’s Black community through the 1960s until it shuttered.
Today the original marquee is boarded up, and the building is unoccupied. Scott said the roof has been leaking water for decades and still has original lead paint and asbestos.
“Some people don’t think it was important to restore this, but this was the first theater in the area where African Americans could go in the front door to see the theater instead of through the fire escape,” Scott said.
The two grants will kick off the renovation, including finding a company to conduct a feasibility study and launching a capital campaign.
“This is a start, but it’s going to take at least a few million dollars,” Scott said. “It is enough to actually get some work done, and that’s what makes this stuff special.”
From there, the Atlanta Business League will start to turn the theater into a new sort of community hub: a business center, community space and homage to the city’s Black business history.
Barr-Davenport said a portion of the nearly 6,000 square foot property will become a small conference space for talks and gatherings. She also hopes to open a studio and continue with ABL-helmed podcasts, “ABL Duos” and “Lessons from Leaders.” There will also be meeting rooms, training spaces and a potentially preserved projection room from the original business.
Barr-Davenport said the league will hire Black-owned businesses like McAfee3 architects and Corporate Environmental Risk Management to do the project.
The CEO also hopes to create a physical “Black Business Hall of Fame” in the refurbished space. The group inducts Black-owned businesses into the Hall of Fame every year, but the theater will provide room to display the honorees.
Businessman Dr. William Pickard, who was inducted into the hall of fame in 2018, told Barr-Davenport he wanted to challenge the group to create the hall of fame because there is “nothing like it in the country,” promising $1 million to the project.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to realize that challenge and that financial commitment from him,” Barr-Davenport said.
It may have taken the Atlanta Business League years to begin the restoration process, but Barr-Davenport is excited to take it on this moment during the “renovation, redevelopment and reinvigoration” of westside Atlanta.
“Our goal is to make sure that entrepreneur members of the Atlanta Business League as well as other business owners in Metro Atlanta continue to strive to grow their businesses,” Barr-Davenport said. “And to give the people in this community hope to show them that there is life in this area and they can be a part of it.”
For more historic info on the Ashby Theatre, click on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation “Places in Peril” description.
I enjoy this type of story – the arts! Well written.
Excited to hear about this in our community.