McRae-Helena’s historic movie theater, the Gene, has hit the market. Priced at just $50,000, the property offers 4,792 square feet of vintage cinema.
The theater was constructed in the 1950s, and named after Georgia governor and Telfair county native Eugene Talmadge. To locals of McRae-Helena, the property has been many things over the years. From a happening cinema to a venue for craft shows, the theater served the Georgia town well through the 70s.
“Known as The Gene, the theater’s unique facade, designed by contemporary architect Bernard Webb, Jr., featured Gene in flowing script on a monumental plaid background. The vibrant theater showed movies through the 1970s, and then was used for pageants, craft shows and musical productions,” the property’s online listing states.
Shuttered in 1979, the theater was eventually purchased in the 90s and used as a batting-cage facility. By 2005, however, the Gene had shut its doors once again.
Now, many decades from its heyday, the Gene is in need of some repairs. The bathrooms are in need of updating. The electrical work needs to be completely redone. But the theater’s current owner has already begun putting the historic site back together.
“The owner has begun [the] cleaning and repair of the structure and has since relocated [back to New York],” Susan Mann Evans, of Susan Evans Realty, told Realtor.com. “The theater does not have any seating.”
Evans hopes the theater’s next steward will finish what its current owner started, safeguarding a piece of Georgia cinema history.
“It would be grand if I had somebody who would turn it back,” she said. “That was [the seller’s] intention.”
Listing by Susan Mann Evans and Susan Evans Realty
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