Courtesy Butch Oglesby/Blue Mon Studios.
Alabama Theatre sign rendering
A rendering of the Alabama Theatre with the old 18th Street sign restored.
The Alabama Theatre announced Thursday, Nov. 2, that it has won a $120,000 grant in a national competition to help reinstall a second vertical sign on the west side of the facility after 60 years.
The Alabama sign project finished in the top 10 in online public voting in the Partners in Preservation: Main Streets campaign.
The new sign, to be installed on the 18th Street North side, will match the existing 60-foot neon sign on the front of the theatre at Third Avenue North.
The predecessor of the new sign was taken down for repairs in 1957 and never reinstalled.
The grant will supplement a substantial amount of money already raised for the project thanks to local donors, according to Brant Beene, president of Birmingham Landmarks, the nonprofit owner of the Alabama and Lyric Theatres.
“We are very appreciative of this grant from the National Trust which will be added to the contributions of major supporters such as Alabama Power, Compass BBVA, Regions, and our own Junior Board,” Beener said in a release
In fact, the sign is already being made by Fravert Services of Birmingham, the company that made new signage for the restored Lyric Theatre, Beene told Iron City Ink.
Birmingham Landmarks plan to unveil and light the new sign at midnight this New Year’s Eve, rounding out the Alabama Theatre’s 90th birthday year, according to the release.
The Alabama’s sign project received more than 54,000 votes from the non-profit’s Facebook friends, customers and others, the release states.
“We have found that Alabama Theatre customers are a dedicated bunch, they love this theatre, have many great memories here and want to keep the Alabama preserved and operating so their children and grandchildren can enjoy it the way they did,” Beene said in the release.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Main Street America partnered with American Express, National Geographic, and Delta Airlines to create the 2017 Vote Your Main Street grant competition.
The Alabama Theatre project was one of 25 finalists, and the online voting was held throughout the month of October.
Donors interested in contributing to the project can contact fundraiser Tom Cosby at 261-8848 or tom@alabamatheatre.com.
