The Morton at 115

Historic Morton Theatre marks 115^th anniversary

The March 17, 1910, edition of the “Athens Banner” heralded the painting of a sign for “Morton’s Theater.” The short article described the “colored opera house” and office building in west downtown Athens as “rather plain, but neat” and ready to book the best shows. It is a testament to the resilience, entrepreneurship and artistic expression of the Black community that the theatre still stands today.

For 115 years, the Morton has been holding it down on the Hot Corner, the center of Black business and life in Athens before desegregation. Situated at the corner of Washington and Hull streets, the theatre is touted as “one of the first and the oldest surviving vaudeville theatres in the United States, uniquely built, owned, and operated by an African American”—Monroe Bowers “Pink” Morton. Born in 1856 to an enslaved mother of mixed descent and white father, Morton (who earned his nickname because of his light complexion) became a prominent businessman and politician. The building, one of about 25-30 that he owned in Athens, also housed offices of African American professionals on the ground floor while the theatre was on the upper floors.

Robert Harrison, executive director of the Athens nonprofit VISTAS Center at ICOD, Inc., says the building and theatre were the nexus of the Black community. “If you look at the evolution and development of Athenian culture, the Morton played a pivotal role—particularly in the Black community—because it became a centerpiece for cultural development,” he says. “It attracted any and everything that was about culture.”

In its heyday, the Morton hosted legendary national touring acts like Butterbeans and Susie, Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver, Cab Calloway, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. The building also housed pioneering Black medical professionals, including Dr. Ida Mae Johnson Hiram, the first Black woman licensed to practice dentistry in Georgia, and Dr. William H. Harris, who co-founded the Georgia State Medical Association of Colored Physicians, Dentists, and Druggists. The theatre rivaled in size the Colonial Opera House, which was also located on Washington Street before being demolished in 1933.

As interest in vaudeville began to wane, the Morton family sought ways to keep the space viable. The last live show in that iteration of the Morton took place in 1944, after which one of Morton’s sons converted the auditorium into a movie house. In the early 1950s, a projection-room fire precipitated the auditorium’s closure as the fire marshal discovered it had only one set of doors. While the building remained open with businesses operating inside, the theatre and upper floors were neglected. The Morton family eventually sold the building in 1973, after which it continued to decline. Harrison recalls that as an adolescent, he and some friends went into the balcony to trap and catch pigeons for their breeding business. “At that time, it was in a dilapidated condition—nobody was in there at all,” says Harrison, who would later become a member of the Morton Theatre Corp. (MTC) Board of Directors. “I remember very well us sneaking into the Morton from the back side, climbing into the upper seating and trying to catch a pigeon.”

Calvin Smith remembers the pigeons, too—and the leaky roof. When he was a child, his mother would go to the Morton building to get her hair done at Slicky’s beauty shop (“where you could smell the singed hair”). By that time in 1975, many people in Athens didn’t even realize there was a theatre in the building. Smith, a Cedar Shoals High School graduate and now a Broadway and touring performer, vividly recalls being 13 years old, seeing the boarded-up doors and windows and thinking, “There’s something in that building.”

There was something—a once beautiful venue—and soon Athens preservationists began to take notice. In 1979, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the following year the volunteer MTC bought the building for $63,000 with the goal of preservation and restoration. Locals continued to make their way into the theatre, and bands like R.E.M. and the B-52s used the space for practice (R.E.M. even filmed  part of the music video for their hit single, “The One I Love” in the theatre).

Smith, who by then was active in local theater, obtained a set of keys and became the building’s unofficial caretaker. Whenever it rained, he emptied the buckets of water that gushed through the roof, which was already falling in. “The only time I was ever featured on the cover of the “Athens Banner-Herald” was a picture of me wearing a white Tommy Hilfiger sweater, with my Afro, and I’m pouring water out of the side windows,” Smith says. “And the caption read, ‘When it rains, he pours.’”

Recognizing that fundraisers and individual donations were not going to save the building,  Athens-Clarke County voters in 1987 approved $1.8 million in SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) funding for the building’s restoration, which meant that the county had to own the property. The MTC transferred ownership of the building to the county and entered into a management agreement under which the county operates the Morton as a community performing arts center, while the nonprofit MTC maintains box office operations and develops programming. The building reopened in the fall of 1993, with Smith as the headliner.

About four years after that reopening, Lynn Green joined the Morton staff as a theatre assistant, having first gone there during her time as a student at the University of Georgia. Green, who was promoted to managing director in 2013, says theatre staff members are primed to continue the good work they’ve been doing and are constantly seeking ways to improve the experience for the renters and audience members. The theatre currently hosts everything from weddings and graduation ceremonies to musicals and comedy shows. “Our evolution has always been looking toward better serving the community,” she says.

The MTC will mark the 115th anniversary with programming during the upcoming 12 months. Planning is underway for an African American film festival, which harks back to the Morton’s time as a movie house. Green says that as stewards of one of Athens’s most important cultural resources, the staff wants the anniversary year to be about connecting with the community. She wants people to share photos and experiences they’ve had at the theatre. Come to a performance, take a tour, volunteer, Green says—as they’ll be there “holding down the Hot Corner.”

Kimberly Davis is an Athens-based writer. She serves on The Morton Corporation board.