| theatre |
The Colquitt Theatre rises again
New business opens new phase for downtown building
One of the first movies that I ever went to see was“ Herbie Goes Bananas,” at the Colquitt Theatre, when I was in first grade. I think many folks in Colquitt County can say their first movie was also at the Colquitt Theatre, a landmark of Downtown Moultrie.
As it closed two years after I went to see the movie and my family had moved to my father’ s next duty station for the Army, it was the one and only time I had been in the theatre. The next time that I stepped through its doors was when I started working for The Moultrie Observer and wrote a story about its new life as the Moultrie Senior Center.
With COVID basically shutting the senior center down for good, and as I saw it sit vacant, yearafter-year, I was concerned about the building’ s future. Buildings that stay vacant too long tend to deteriorate quickly, as if the life-force of the people that inhabited them was the only thing keeping them standing. Then, an announcement made at the beginning of last year, gave the Colquitt Theatre a new life and a new future.
Susana and Alan Torres, the proprietors of“ Rocco’ s Italian Streetfood,” a well-loved local food truck, would renovate the building and turn it into“ Rocco’ s Ristorante at the Theatre.” Working closely with the Moultrie Downtown Development Authority and the UGA Small Business Developby Adelia Ladson
Two movie patrons pose in front of the Colquitt Theatre during W. W. II.
26 MoultrieScene JUNE 2025