The auditorium at Southside Middle School has been a gathering place since 1922.

CAIRO — If the walls of the historic auditorium at Southside Elementary School could talk, they would tell of small children giggling as they share secrets, teens boasting about their futures and proud parents whispering to each other out in the audience. These walls will continue to collect tales long into the future, if all continues to go as planned. Plans are currently under way to renovate the school’s auditorium, with construction hopefully beginning during the summer of 2015.

Lee Bailey, Grady County School superintendent, said the 10,000 foot auditorium, built in 1922, at 491 Third St. SE, will provide the community with a nice venue for mid-sized productions and will serve as a focal point for that side of Cairo.

Currently, drama groups only have the old theatre downtown or Cairo High School’s large auditorium (holds approximately 950) for productions. The auditorium at Southside would provide a medium sized venue for those performances, holding 500-800 people.

Janet Walden, principal of Southside Elementary, added, “We’re excited about the community potential for the auditorium.”

Funding comes from the Special Project Local Option Sales Tax that expired March 30.

Renovations will cost approximately $1.8, which is about the same Bailey estimates completely tearing it down and starting over would cost. Bailey said he would rather be known “as the one who spent too much to save the auditorium than for being the one who tore it down.”

A few years ago, $100,000 dollars of donated money was used to renovate the inside of the auditorium. The chairs were redone and there were other cosmetic projects inside but nothing structural. New plans include opening up the foyer of the auditorium to the second floor, adding wooden staircases, making it handicap accessible and improving restrooms. They would also like to install an elevator that would transport people from the area below stage to the stage area.

Outside, the doors will be replaced with wooden doors, aluminum soffits and some of the windows will be replaced. The two wings which extend off of the auditorium will be removed and later replaced with new classroom buildings.

“To make the school safer, we will be limiting access to the buildings and re-routing pick-up and drop-off areas so that students aren’t walking in front of vehicles,” explained Walden.

But plans for Southside don’t stop there. Pending approval of a new education SPLOST on the November ballot, architects Ray and Suzanne Finger of Raymond C. Finger Architects in Thomasville are developing plans to completely renovate and rebuild Southside Elementary.

“We are at a point where decisions have to be made,” said Bailey. “Grady County has continually patched. Now we’re in the place where some things need to be built new.”

“I think the community is ready,” Bailey continued. “Southside needs to be rebuilt. It was built in 1937 or 38. We recently completely tore down one of the buildings that was built in 1938.

He said, “The termite damage was so bad you could grab a wall and almost shake it. It was not safe at all.”

Eventually, the site plan calls for seven new buildings. The media center and lunchroom would be combined into one lunchroom and a new media center would be built.

Bailey said that the Fingers have special ties with Southside that are reflected in their design. Suzanne Finger said that her mother, Nancy W. Holden, was a second-grade teacher there for about 20 years. Her family planted several oak trees in front of the auditorium in her memory. Those trees will be preserved.

Finger said, “We have really enjoyed getting to work with Lee and the others. I think its going to be a really neat project.”