Hogansville’s Royal Theater A Historic City Landmark

By TODD PIKE
O.C. Lam, the brother of long-time Hogansville High superintendent C.O. Lam, and the head of Lam Amusement Company, hired the Atlanta architectural firm of Tucker and Howell to build the Royal Theater in 1937. The theater was built in the art deco style popular at the time, which was a non-traditional style movement that began in Paris in 1925 and represented a modern, sleek elegance with simple, clean lines.
The building had load-bearing masonry walls with poured concrete footings, the walls capped with decorative terra cotta. The front facade above the marquee was a masonry stucco, cast stone and cast-iron ornament. When finished, the Royal’s first floor measured 7,218 square feet and the balcony was 2,800 square feet, for a total of over 10,000 square feet. In 1937, it had 895 theater seats. For a time after opening, the Royal was the largest theater between Atlanta and Columbus and was considered much nicer than those in larger, nearby cities.
A short video on Youtube about the Royal includes an interview with Clifford “Sonny” Granger from 2013. An HHS grad in 1948, Granger tells about how kids in the early 1940s would spend their Saturdays at the Royal from early morning to mid-afternoon watching double features, usually westerns. He could remember getting a ticket for 12 cents and popcorn and a Coke for a nickel each.
For several decades, the theater was a popular weekend destination for teenagers and adults alike. Many school plays and high school graduation ceremonies were held there until the HHS auditorium was built in 1952. As happens with most things, however, times change. By the late 1970s, the theater was no longer well attended and the building began to deteriorate. In 1980, the Royal ceased operation. A year later, in December 1981, the land and building were donated to the citizens of Hogansville by owners Ralph W. Howard, Sr., and J. Ralph Matthews, Sr. 
A few years later, city officials decided to move their offices into the theater and the building was dedicated as Hogansville City Hall on March 2, 1985. After extensive interior renovation, including construction of several offices, City Hall began operating in the old theater in 1988.
Limited exterior restoration was performed on the building in 2000 and 2001 and the marquee was rebuilt in 2003. From November 2011 to June 2018, city and county support for restoring the theater back to the original design raised $700,000 in SPLOST and grant funds. In July 2018, the Royal Theater Master Plan was completed by the architectural firm of Carter Watkins Associates of Monroe, Ga, funded in part by a planning grant from the Fox Theater Institute. Hogansville adopted the plan on July 16, 2018.
In June of 2021, City Hall moved into the former PNC Bank building on High Street which was purchased and given to the city by the Hogansville Charitable Trust from money raised by the annual Hummingbird Festival. In April 2023, the city hired Principal Construction of West Georgia for the Royal Theater rehabilitation, with completion reached in August 2024. The balcony now has several VIP tables and 512 theater seats, among them some of the original wooden seats from the 1930s and some of the first padded seats from the 1950s. The new metal spire which adorns the top of the theater was paid for by Tim and Mara Morgan and Ray Colemon.
Grants and donations from the Georgia Historic Preservation Division, the U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development plan, the Callaway Foundation, the Georgia Council For The Arts, the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, the Fox Theater Institute and T-Mobile amounted to $3.7 million, which was used to transform the Royal to her original appearance. 
     The first concert held in the remodeled gem was for local singers Whiskey Moon and Eddie Robinson, just weeks before the official grand re-opening in November 2024. Since then, the Royal has played numerous movies, hosted comedy and magic shows, political debates, public forums, an Easter Sunrise Service and several concerts. Among those who performed were Grammy Award winners Peabo Bryson and The Blind Boys Of Alabama, American Idol winner Ruben Studdard and Colin Raye, who had the #1 country song “Love Me” in 1991.
     Many grandparents now take their grandchildren to see movies they watched at the Royal as kids and many of the volunteer ushers spent their weekends there in their teenage years. The theater brings many people to town who wouldn’t come otherwise, and will probably bring them back again. Without a doubt, the restoration of the Royal to her former glory is a success story all Hogansville residents should take pride in. 
      (A little trivia; the Royal is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was seen in two episodes of The Walking Dead: the season 9, episode 11 “Bounty” and it was integral to the season 10, episode 14 “Look at the Flowers”)