SC cities to revamp historic theaters with help from state funding

The Carolina Theatre in downtown Florence, around 1955. (Provided/City of Florence)

Once a hub for movie-goers in downtown Florence, the Carolina Theatre has spent years sitting unused, filled with storage boxes.

City officials want to restore the theater to its 1920s glory, complete with a movie screen, ornate moldings and a marquee outside. Along with movies, the theater will be a spot for concerts, weddings and conferences that are too big for the existing venues but too small for the nearby convention center.

Florence is one of several cities receiving taxpayer aid through the state budget that took effect July 1 to refurbish a historic movie theater in the hopes of giving the local economy a boost. Florence is set to receive $2 million to wrap up its project, while the Newberry Opera House will get $515,000, and the historic State Theatre in Loris will get $100,000.

All three theaters showed movies during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1920s and ’30s. They hung on during the Great Depression, but all went out of business at different points in later decades.

The Newberry Opera House reopened in the 1990s to become a successful live music venue, which officials are updating this summer.

In Florence and Loris, the people leading the projects hope the refurbished theaters will become iconic downtown landmarks, while also serving as much-needed event spaces.

Carolina Theatre

At one point, the Carolina Theatre — or, as it was originally known, the O’Dowd Theatre — in Florence showed movies like Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby’s “Country Girl,” or “Billy the Kid Wanted.”

The theater first opened around 1925, but when a fire gutted most of the building in the 1940s, it got its first renovation. The 1950s and 1980s saw more updates, but by the early 2000s, the theater had gone out of business.

For years, the once-bustling theater was used only for storage. The city of Florence bought the building about 10 years ago with the idea of selling it to a private company to refurbish, but it couldn’t find any takers. The renovations the theater would need were bigger than any company wanted to take on, said Clint Moore, assistant city manager.

“It was too high of a cost, too big of a risk,” Moore said.

Still, the city hung onto the building. Many people in Florence remember when the theater was still showing movies, and city officials knew that if they could get the funding to renovate it, they could restore it to its former glory, Moore said.

“We knew that once it had some new life breathed into it, it would be a huge asset for us,” Moore said.

In 2019, the city took out a $2 million bond for the work. That should have been enough for most of the work, but after the COVID-19 pandemic halted the project, construction costs skyrocketed, and the city was left unsure how it would complete it. The $2 million from the state will allow the city to finish the job.

The renovations will keep the movie screen while also transforming the theater into a mid-sized event space. Florence has venues for small gatherings. Francis Marion University’s Performing Arts Center downtown has an 850-seat auditorium for concerts and theatrical productions. And the Florence Center includes a 10,000-seat arena and a 14,500-square-foot ballroom, but the city has nowhere for crowds in between, Moore said.

The Florence Theatre, which originally seated 700 people, seemed the right size to fill that niche, said Rep. Jay Jordan, who sponsored the one-time money in the state budget.

“There’s currently not really anywhere that meets that criteria,” the Florence Republican said.

The city plans to replicate the iconic marquee that once hung outside the theater, which went missing years ago, Moore said. By returning the theater to what it once was, officials hope it will become a landmark in and of itself. The $4.3 million renovations are set to be done by next fall, he said.

“(The theater) went through many life cycles along the way, but we’re trying to bring it back to that original time period,” Moore said.

Newberry Opera House

The city of Newberry knows firsthand the difference a concert venue can make.

When the Newberry Opera House reopened in 1998, the city was dying, said director Anne Pinckney Smith. After the Newberry Opera House Guild was formed a few years later to promote the venue, the city transformed from a sleepy town to a destination for mid-sized acts and tourists drawn to see them.

Inside the opera house, though, little has changed over those 25 years.

So, with the help of $500,000 from the state this year, sponsored by GOP Sen. Ronnie Cromer of Prosperity, the venue is undergoing renovations to spiff up the interior for coming generations. That’s in addition to $850,000 in last year’s state budget that Cromer sponsored. Private fundraising covered the rest of the $1.7 million total cost, Pinckney Smith said.

Some lawmakers call SC Arts Commission funding a ‘waste.’ Supporters say it’s essential.

“We wanted to go through a refresh,” she said.

That includes fixing the elevators, replacing the seats with ones with cupholders and adding aisle lighting so ushers no longer have to show guests to their seats with flashlights. Plus, the opera house will get new carpeting and a fresh coat of paint, Pinckney Smith said.

“I want to set us up for the next 25 years,” she said.

The seats and flooring are not original to the 142-year-old building, she added. Those were installed when the building reopened. All the renovations will incorporate the original look to the theater, preserving its original aesthetics, she said.

Although the theater was first opened for stage shows in 1882, it was remodeled in the 1920s to be a movie theater. The last movie it showed was in 1952, and the foundation that saved the building from demolition decided to go back to its roots as a live performance venue.

The theater closed at the end of May for renovations and will reopen Sept. 13 for a first look, including dinner and drinks.

State Theatre

When the Loris Historical Society first bought the historic State Theatre in 2019, no one was quite sure what the original theater looked like. For years, the 87-year-old theater had been an office building, and the owners had installed low drop ceilings and tile floors.

Still, historical society members knew something was waiting underneath, said Samantha Norris, a board member of the historical society. After renovations began, the society discovered 26-foot ceilings, exposed brick walls and a stairway up to a balcony and what was once a film room.

“What we found underneath was amazing,” Norris said.

The years had taken their toll on the theater, which first opened in 1937 but showed its final movie in the 1970s, she said. The roof was leaking and needed replacing. The ceilings, though grand, had exposed beams.

After fixing up the theater enough to begin hosting events, with the help of $254,000 in last year’s state budget, the historical society plans to finish its final touches with $100,000 this year. Both earmarks were sponsored by Sen. Kent Williams, D-Marion.

After replacing the roof, the plan is to add an interior layer to the ceilings, cover the floors, add signage outside and install an elevator for access to the balcony.

Eventually, the historical society wants to open a museum inside the theater detailing the history of Loris. That plan will likely need more fundraising, though Norris said she wasn’t sure how much.

Already, the city has used the space for craft fairs, family reunions and Chamber of Commerce gatherings. The first wedding at the theater will be in August, Norris said.

The 2,000-person city didn’t have a similar event space, sending many people to nearby Myrtle Beach for gatherings. Even though the theater isn’t yet finished, it’s often booked for events, bringing more people into Loris than had visited before. Once the theater officially opens next month, Norris said she expects the impact to only grow.

“I don’t think we realized how much we needed it until we got it, and now we use it all the time,” Norris said.

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