The Friends of Martin Theatre group has been approved by the Alabama Power Foundation to receive a $45,645 grant to support the refurbishment of the Eufaula theater’s marquee.

The foundation’s grant will cover most of the cost of restoring the marquee. City officials are confident that once it is installed it will be a catalyst for further donations to work on the theater’s interior.

The marquee will have LED message boards that will be used for communicating to residents and tourists in Eufaula. The MARTIN letters will be restored and put back with lighting that will make the downtown more vibrant. The installation is anticipated by the end of January.

The Martin Theatre has been a focal point of downtown Eufaula for more than 100 years and has been through multiple owners and developments. There is a vision to bring the charm and history of the theater back to Eufaula and to restore it to a place of pride and community, city officials said.

In the early 1990s, the theater interior burned and has since remained in a state of disrepair. In 2019, the theatre was donated to the Eufaula Downtown Redevelopment Authority with anticipation of rehabilitating it to new life. The vision of the authority is to make the theater an open-air entertainment venue. The theater has no roof, but it retains a stage that could be used for concerts or other cultural events.

The Friends of Martin Theatre was organized and designated as a nonprofit entity to raise money for this project. Tax-deductible donations can be sent to Eufaula City Hall at 205 E. Barbour St. and checks can be made out to Friends of Martin Theatre or made at paypal.me/FOMTeufaula.

For more than a century, Alabama Power employees have been committed to supporting communities to improve the quality of life for all Alabamians. The Alabama Power Foundation, founded in 1989, is proud to continue this mission and support the communities it serves.

This story originally appeared in The Eufaula Tribune.