The Ritz

The Ritz Theater in Toccoa was built in 1939 by Fred McLendon. At one time he owned 50 theaters in the southeast but only this one and the Buckhead in Atlanta survive in Georgia. As what happened to most singles screen theaters over time, they closed up and were lost or as in the Ritz re-purposed. It became the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. In 2012, it was given a grant from the Fox Theater Institute and a renovation began. The city took it over in 2014 and in 2016 a grant was given to recreate the original Marquis It might be new but it restores a forgotten piece of Toccoa's past.
Andy Sarge