The Tivoli Theatre Foundation has won the biggest historic renovation grant among 25 projects announced Monday by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
Among $5.7 million of funds approved by the Tennessee General Assembly three years ago for historic preservation projects across Tennessee, the state allocated $400,000 for the restoration of the century-old Tivoli Theatre and adjacent former Fowler Brothers office building on Broad Street in downtown Chattanooga. The state aid for the Tivoli was the biggest of the 25 grants awarded Monday and will be used by the Tivoli Theatre Foundation as part of its $60 million restoration and upgrade of the Tivoli Theatre and adjacent building in the 700 block of Broad Street.
The Tivoli foundation, which took over the historic theater and bought the former Fowler Brothers building next door in 2019, is seeking to enhance the downtown entertainment venue and add a restaurant, a new Bobby Stone theater venue and other support services for the historic Tivoli Theatre, according to foundation officials.
"This is an tremendous vote of confidence in helping us to restore these two key buildings in downtown as we work to revitalize this historic facility for Chattanooga and its entertainment industry," Nick Wilkinson, CEO of the Tivoli Theatre Foundation, said Monday after the state announced its historic grants for local projects across the Volunteer State. "We're excited about the future of these great landmark buildings."
(READ MORE: Chattanooga's Tivoli Theatre Foundation shows $43.6 million local economic impact)
Working with the Tennessee Historical Commission, the state Department of Economic and Community Development selected the 25 recipients for this year's historic building grants, including the Tivoli Foundation proposal. For this round of the program, the state's $5.7 million investment is expected to leverage more than $13 million in private investment.
"The Historic Development Grant program assists in preserving and revitalizing some of Tennessee's most historic and notable buildings so that they once again have the opportunity to serve as a hub for commerce and tourism," Tennessee Economic Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter said Monday in an announcement of the historic grants.
The Tivoli Theatre Foundation has already raised nearly $20 million in private and government grants for it work at the Tivoli Theatre and adjacent office on Broad Street and the Solider's and Sailors Memorial Auditorium on McCallie Avenue. Keith Sanford, chair of the Tivoli Foundation, said a public fundraising campaign for the foundation's is slated to begin next month.
Wilkinson said the foundation hopes to begin renovation work within the next year and to reopen the Tivoli by late 2025 or early 2026, supported by private and government donations, historic tax credits and borrowed funds that will be repaid as the venue attracts more shows to Chattanooga. The foundation has already booked a number of top Broadway shows at the Memorial Auditorium in the past year and is planning more in the future, Wilkinson said.
"Many of the state's historic properties are being rehabilitated thanks to the economic incentives from the Historic Development Grants and Federal Historic Tax Credits, and we look forward to seeing the impact these grants make across Tennessee," Tennessee Historic Commission Executive Director Patrick McIntyre said in a statement Monday.
(READ MORE: Tivoli Theatre Foundation launches recovery fund)
The Tivoli Theatre, known as the "Jewel of the South," has entertained Chattanoogans for more than a century with everything from silent movies to Broadway shows.
The Tivoli opened in March of 1921, following two years of construction at a cost of nearly $1 million. The interior reflects the Beaux Arts style popular for movie palaces of the 1920s. In 1924 a $30,000 Wurlitzer organ was installed and in 1926 the Tivoli became one of the first public buildings in the country to be air-conditioned.
By the 1950s with the advent of television, the Tivoli Theatre fell into disrepair and was almost demolished until 1962 when a grant from Chattanooga's Benwood Foundation saved the theater and the Tivoli was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1986 the Lyndhurst Foundation, the state of Tennessee and the city of Chattanooga funded a $7 million two-year restoration.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.
Staff Photo by Dave Flessner / The Tivoli Theatre and the adjacent former Fowler Brothers furniture building in the 700 block of Broad Street are shown Monday as pedestrians stroll by the shuttered theater. The Tivoli Theatre Foundation is planning a $60 million renovation and upgrade, including restoring the buildings, adding a restaurants and upstairs Bobby Stone theater and installing new elevators and suppot areas for theater patrons.