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Demo Begins as Prause’s Meat Market Transitions to a Downtown Theatre
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Garrett Reavis, up top, lowers down a bucket of old brick paneling to Deacon Wick and Jude Lira Saturday. All are Fayette Community Theatre volunteers who showed up Saturday to help with initial demolition work at the old Prause’s Meat Market, which will be a new theatre. Photos by Chrystal Wick -
Heather Barthelme holds a ladder as Holden Mikulin scraps off old brick panels from the wall Saturday at Prause’s.
Last year the La Grange Economic Development Corporation bought the old Prause’s Meat Market and the rest of the Von Rosenberg building on the southwest corner of the Courthouse Square, with the intention of turning it into the future home of Fayette County Community Theatre (FCCT).
Saturday some of the first signs of the transition from BBQ to Broadway were seen at the site as FCCT volunteers did some demolition in the old meat market – prying old brick panels off the walls and taking out old plywood walls.
Prause’s has been closed since August 2020. FCCT has a long process of work and fundraising ahead of itself on the project (the theatre group will be responsible for renovation costs as well as leasing it from the city) but eventually the hope is for the theatre to be an anchor of downtown nightlife.
Theatre officials have said the new facility will allow them to stage their own productions over multiple weekends, as well as host other live acts and also add a screen to show movies.