NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - Franklin Cinema May Be Added To Endangered Sites List

Franklin Cinema May Be Added To Endangered Sites List

FRANKLIN, Tenn.- The Franklin Cinema closed in January, but an historic group is trying to make sure it has a future.

The theater is being considered for a spot on a list of endangered state historic sites.

The 70-year-old cinema is being considered for the Tennessee Preservation Trust's annual "Ten in Tennessee." It is a compilation of historic sites facing threats to their future.

Since the theater closed, local merchants and preservationists have been trying to draw investors to save the building.

For 70 years, movies were shown at the theater on Franklin's Main Street.

But in January, that decades-old tradition ended.

Even before the theater closed, residents tried to find a way to save it, but just couldn't.  Now a preservation group may take on their cause.

"I hate to see it go away," said resident Sandy Corradetti. "I hate to see us lose this and once it's gone, it can't be retrieved."

Many residents are reflecting on Franklin's past and what this old theater means to them. It's those types of sentiments that could eventually save this cinema.

"It has a great cultural significance for the city and the historic district," said Dan Brown, executive director of the Tennessee Preservation Trust.  "There's a very great concern that this aspect of the district is going to be lost."

So the Tennessee Preservation Trust is strongly considering putting the Franklin Cinema on its top 10 list of endangered places in Tennessee, a list that gets a lot of attention across the Volunteer State.

"So this helps focus that interest and that knowledge and that education of what's going on here, and hopefully that brings about solutions,"' Brown said.

.Something locals who love the old cinema hope for.

"Everything about it represents something magical about this community and I'm just really sad to think that we might lose it," Corradetti said.

Local groups have raised nearly $20,000 to try and save the theater. Most of that money will help pay for consultants working on a plan for the theater.

The Tennessee Preservation Trust hopes to announce its top 10 endangered place on Friday.

The cinema's owners claimed the rising cost of rent in Franklin and competition from national chains forced them to shut down in January.