FLORENCE, Ala. (WHNT) — After eight long weeks without a true staple to the Shoals area, the famous marquee Shoals Theatre sign is officially back up.
All eyes were looking up at one thing on Friday morning, in the heart of Florence.
Chelsea Keeton, interim manager at Shoals Community Theatre, says she has been waiting for this day.
“So obviously they’re back, it’s up, and so we’re very excited that our Shoals sign is here, it’s been a symbol to the downtown and everybody was, you know, afraid what was happening when we took it down, but thankfully it’s back,” Keeton said.
The sign was taken down in August for some much-needed repairs, and Shoals locals said it was a weird two months without the sign.
“There was a hole in the downtown. We want this back, we need this back, and it’s come back and we’re so happy that that’s happened,” says Chris Stangel, a Shoals local.
“Again, it is iconic. It is the staple to the Shoals area, so the fact that it was missing, it was definitely- you could feel it when we are taking pictures or using the theater as a backdrop, of not having that bright sign there,” Keeton said.
An anonymous local paid for the sign to get fixed up after several years of wear and tear.
“So there is gonna be some fresh paint and then like the neon sign that’s on the outside in the lightbulb, some of them were out, so obviously all of that got a little bit of a spa treatment and you just new life to it,” Keeton said.
And now that the sign is up and sparkling, locals are thrilled to have it back.
“It just means a lot, I’m glad they kept it, this place was where you used to take your dates,” says Pride Thompson, a long-time Shoals resident.
“The fact that an iconic sign is on an iconic theater in an iconic downtown, we couldn’t be happier,” Stangel said.
Keeton says the Shoals area is now whole again.
“When it’s missing, it doesn’t feel complete, and now that it’s going back up, it just feels like that ahhhh moment…”
The sign is up just in time for upcoming shows at the theater, including ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’, ‘Phantom of the Shoals’, Carver’s Creepy Crawly Halloween Festival and ‘Ghostbusters Afterlife’, for October.
The post ‘There was a hole in the downtown’: Iconic Shoals Community Theatre sign back up for good appeared first on WHNT.
