Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 19/06/2026 22:34:00

Built in 1911 as a Baptist church, the four-storey brick building at 152 Luckie Street in downtown Atlanta now leads a second life as one of the city's best-loved mid-sized concert halls. It rose from the congregation founded by Dr Leonard Gaston Broughton, who broke away from an existing church in the late 1890s; designed by Chattanooga architect Reuben Harrison Hunt, it broke ground in 1909 and held its first services on 3 September 1911, with thousands gathering for an extended dedication. The Tabernacle Baptist congregation worshipped there for decades, its membership peaking in the 1950s before steadily declining as Atlanta's population spread to the suburbs. By the 1980s the congregation had moved out, and the imposing building sat empty until investors bought it in 1994 with an eye on the approaching Olympic Games. Its conversion to a music venue came for the 1996 Summer Olympics, when it operated briefly as a House of Blues. After the Games it continued as a performance space and is now owned and managed by Live Nation, with a capacity of around 2,600. The ornate former sanctuary, entered through a set of red doors, retains the galleries and decorative detail of its church origins, giving concerts an atmosphere unlike a purpose-built hall. Affectionately known to locals as the "Tabby," the venue has hosted a vast range of performers over the decades, from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash to contemporary rock, pop and hip-hop acts, and doubles as a space for corporate events and private functions. Standing two blocks from the Georgia World Congress Center in the Centennial Olympic Park District, it remains a downtown landmark that has gracefully outlived its first purpose. Ground was broken on 17 August 1909 and the structure was completed at a cost of around 125,000 dollars, with the church's membership swelling past 3,000 at its mid-century height. Since its conversion the building has been renovated several times, in the mid-1990s and again in 2008 and 2014, while keeping the galleried sanctuary, ornate detailing and six red entrance doors that distinguish it from a purpose-built hall. Its concert history runs from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash through to current rock, pop and hip-hop touring acts, and it doubles as a corporate and private-event space. Two blocks from the Georgia World Congress Center, the Tabby is woven into the fabric of downtown Atlanta.