The Hogansville City Council unanimously approved a grant application for the Royal Theatre’s roof to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Division Thursday.

“It’s a 60-40 grant, so should we be awarded the grant, we would be reimbursed partially for renovating and replacing the roof for the Royal Theatre building,” said David Milliron, Hogansville City Manager.

This decision comes after architects presented a plan for renovating the theatre to the council. Milliron said this is one of many applications the city is applying for to renovate the theatre.

“We have not received anything back from them yet, but as part of that, the architects had provided us a cost estimate for what it potentially cost to fix the roof,” he said. “What we’re doing is we’re trying to apply to different organizations, state and non-profits for grants that ultimately will pull together the money necessary to renovate the historic Royal Theatre. That’s what this grant is — it’s one of many applications that the city will file with the ultimate goal of restoring the building.”

The theatre was built in 1937 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, Milliron said.

It was closed in 1980 and reopened as Hogansville’s City Hall in 1984, according to Milliron.

“The council has still not made a determination to what the building will be whether it will be renovated for city hall or whether it will be renovated as a city hall slash community meeting place theatre or potentially leave and just moving city hall and making it a theatre building,” Milliron said. “The council isn’t there yet because that’s why they hired the architect to do was to come up with potential plans and present them to the city so the council would have options.”