Last November, the Sautee Nacoochee Center was named the recipient of a $25,000 financial grant as part of the historic Fox Theatre’s 2024-2025 Fox Gives grants program. Last Friday, the center officially received its check in a special ceremony at the Sautee-Nacoochee Gym.
Mel Whitehead, Executive Director of the Sautee Nacoochee Center, said, “Our gymnasium, built in the 1930s, is an important venue for SNC.” He said they will use the funds to help ensure the facility can continue serving for years to come.
Leigh Burns, Community Partnership Director at the Fox Theatre, was present to award the check to Whitehead for the Center. Burns said, “This is one of the most unique building types in the state of Georgia, and that it is used for so many purposes really lent such a lift to the application,” she said. ”This historic gymnasium has a unique representation of decades of shared memories. The preservation and continued use of the building lets the entire community celebrate the performing arts here in Sautee and from the surrounding counties for decades to come.”
The funds will enable a historic preservation specialist and preservation-based architect to study the feasibility and make architectural assessments needed to revitalize the historic gymnasium on the Sautee Nachoochee Center campus.
Whitehead says the money has already been put to use.
”We have paid a historic preservation architect to come in and do a structural analysis, to measure the building, to get everything that’s involved in building the whole (thing), from the ground up, to redo this. And we want to bring it back to not only its former glory, but we want to bring it up to date,” commented Whitehead.
Whitehead said this grant is just the first step; they next plan to apply for a $100,000 Fox Gives matching grant to complete the project. If that grant is approved, they already have a pledge for matching funds.
Since its inception in 2008, Fox Gives has expanded its philanthropic efforts, doubling its financial commitment to preserving historic theaters and venues across Georgia and the Southeast.
