The Tabernacle: Small Theater With Deep Roots

The 2,600-seat Tabernacle is one of Atlanta’s greatest venues, but its initial purpose had little to do with entertainment.

Reverend Len G. Broughton opened the Tabernacle Baptist Church in September 1911. The coveted real estate sat on an area now dominated by Centennial Olympic Park. The Atlanta Constitution called it “one of the most important real estate and church transactions ever made in Atlanta.”

Initial estimates put construction costs around $250,000, the equivalent of around $6.5 million today. The church property was sold in 1994 and operated briefly as House of Blues during the 1996 Olympics.

– Preston Thompson, SPR Atlanta