Douglass Theatre, Macon, Georgia
The Douglass Theatre
of Macon, Georgia was opened to the public in the late spring of 1921. Built by African -American entrepreneur Charles Douglass the Theatre was one of
the few places that African - Americans could see vaudeville and movies during the days of
racial segregation. The fortunes of the enterprise declined during the 1960’s
with closure in 1973 as the result. The
decorative finishes, folk murals and ornamental plaster of the interior suffered
parallel decay until the $2.3 million renovations of 1996.
The services of a paint conservator were used to determine original
colors and materials so that appropriate methods and materials could be
specified. The owner’s decision
to clad most surfaces with sheetrock, rather than repair existing plaster,
required careful stencil tracing to render accurate designs on the replacement
substrate. The murals were cleaned,
stabilized then sealed prior to inpainting.
Reversible acrylics matched in hue, value and chroma to the areas
surrounding the losses were used in this portion of the project.
The order and type of film layers were chosen according to a solvent
sensitivity strategy. The final
result was a treatment that can be removed one step at a time in the future.
