East Point Historic Civic Block, Historical civic district in East Point, Georgia, US.
East Point Historic Civic Block is a collection of municipal buildings showing early 20th-century architecture that together form a cohesive downtown ensemble. The structures stand at the heart of East Point and define the town center with their traditional brick facades and period details.
City Hall and the Auditorium were financed by a $65,000 public bond program and completed in 1931; the New Deal Library followed in 1939 with a brass plaque citing Roosevelt's Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. In 2011 the City Council issued a Request for Proposals for a multi-purpose government complex that called for tearing down several, if not all, of the buildings.
The auditorium hosted revival services by evangelist Gypsy Smith Jr. in April 1931 and was dedicated on May 28, 1931, with Col. Ed L. Humphreys as master of ceremonies. From it, the Georgia Jubilee radio show aired live in the early 1960s, and Patsy Cline sang there in December 1961. Donors to the 1983–84 renovation have their names on brass plaques fixed to the backs of the seats.
The four elements sit within East Point Street, Linwood Avenue, Church Street and West Cleveland Avenue in downtown East Point, a short walk from the MARTA station. City Hall still houses the Mayor's office and Council chambers, so the interior is a working office; the buildings are best seen from the street and from Victory Park, which is in front of the 1939 library.
The 2011 request for proposals sought a "Multi-Purpose Government Complex" and called for tearing down several, if not all, of the existing buildings. That threat, rather than neglect, put the block on the endangered list. The City Auditorium was long the only venue of its size within two blocks of a MARTA train station.
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