Downtown Macon’s Grand Opera House is set to undergo renovations. What we know.

The Grand Opera House in downtown Macon is about to see some big improvements.

According to county documents, the Grand Opera House will undergo renovations focused on improving areas for performers, including dressing rooms, green rooms and bathrooms.

The Grand Opera House is planning to renovate three dressing rooms located at the stage level, including adding a bathroom that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act, county documents show. The venue is also going to renovate below-stage dressing rooms, bathrooms and the green room, and replace all of the doors and frames along the building’s exterior.

Julia Morrison, director of arts marketing at Mercer University, which operates the venue, said the renovations will complement changes made in 2018 that sought to improve experiences for patrons. The changes included expanding the lobby, modernizing restrooms and adding new seating.

Morrison said improving performers’ experiences will reflect in the venue’s shows, and better serve the many community performances, recitals and plays that use the Grand Opera House.

“It’s a place where if you have a daughter in dance classes, she’s spending time backstage there every year for recitals,” Morrison said. “Even though those are areas our patrons don’t necessarily touch, they are vital to our community functioning and keeping this gem alive.”

The Grand Opera House first opened its doors in 1904, replacing the demolished Academy of Music that had occupied the site for about 30 years.

At its opening, the Grand Opera House seated 2,400 people and had a stage that was 80 feet wide and 60 feet deep, making it the largest theater in the South and one of the largest in the U.S.

The Grand Opera House played host to some of the biggest acts of the early 20th century, including illusionist Harry Houdini and Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.

In 1935, the Grand Opera House was converted into a movie theater with fewer live events and began to decay as live entertainment venues lost out to cinemas.

Concerned citizens and prominent business owners formed the Macon Arts Council in the late 1960s — now known as the Macon Arts Alliance — and pushed to save the Grand Opera House. After extensive fundraising and renovation efforts, the Grand Opera House reopened in 1970, inviting Maconites to revel in its restored splendor.

Mercer University took over leadership of the Grand Opera House in the 1990s, but Macon-Bibb County continues to help fund projects at the venue so that future generations can enjoy it.

The county is in the process of asking developers to submit forms outlining their qualifications to undertake the project. Qualified firms will detail their proposal for the renovations, and the county will select one to partner with.

Morrison said there isn’t a timeline yet for when the improvements will be finished, but she expects to have a better idea once the county announces a partner.