The Fox Theatre is opening its doors to ghost hunters this fall, bringing back and expanding its Haunted History Tours with live actors and a rare walk into the historic building's sub-basement. The 60-minute tours run Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays throughout September and October, plus a run of extra dates from September 28-30 and October 1 and 4-8, covering the Midtown Atlanta landmark's famous supernatural stories.
According to FOX 5 Atlanta, tickets go on sale September 4, with Haunted History Tours priced at $25 and general admission ghost tour tickets running $50. The report, credited to Paul Milliken and drawing on a Fox Theatre press release along with original Good Day Atlanta reporting, notes the tours give visitors access to the theater's sub-basement — a space not typically open to the public.
A Boiler Room Worker Who Never Left
Among the ghost stories long featured on the tours is that of “Roosevelt,” a boiler room worker who maintained the building's heating through the 1930s and 1940s until his death in 1945. His spirit is said to still haunt the sub-basement, slamming doors and flipping lights on and off, according to Paige Minds The Gap. Roosevelt's old boiler room sits in the same sub-basement area now open to visitors on select tour dates.
Roosevelt is not the only spirit woven into the Fox's lore. Fox Theatre ghost stories shared during seasonal tours also include “Mary,” a nurse rumored to haunt the building's original 1929 hospital room, and “Anna Ragan,” a former landowner allegedly spotted in Dressing Room 42, as previously reported by FOX 5 Atlanta. The theater kept an onsite medical hospital room for patrons from its opening day until emergency medical technicians eventually replaced the full-time nurses on staff.
The Real Phantom Behind the Legend
The theater's most famous nickname, the “Phantom of the Fox,” traces back to a real person: longtime technical director Joe Patten, who lived rent-free in a secret 3,600-square-foot apartment inside the building for more than 35 years until his death at age 89 in April 2016. Patten earned the lifetime lease after restoring the venue's massive pipe organ and helping prevent the theater's demolition, per FOX 5 Atlanta's earlier coverage of his passing.
That near-demolition is central to the Fox's history. The theater was rescued from planned destruction by telephone company Southern Bell in 1974-1975, after local citizens organized the nonprofit Atlanta Landmarks and launched a $3 million grassroots “Save the Fox” fundraising campaign, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Southern Bell had originally planned to replace the movie palace with a high-rise office tower before agreeing to a nine-plot land swap instead.
From Shriners' Headquarters to National Landmark
The building was originally conceived in 1928 as a grand headquarters for Atlanta's Shriners before being leased to movie mogul William Fox, according to the City of Atlanta Urban Design Commission. The 4,665-seat venue was designed by architecture firm Marye, Alger and Vinour in the Middle Eastern Revival style and spans an entire city block at Peachtree Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue.
That history earned the Fox Theatre a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1974, followed by official designation as a U.S. National Historic Landmark in May 1976, per Wikipedia. The theater opened on Christmas Day 1929 and screened Walt Disney's landmark animated short Steamboat Willie, starring Mickey Mouse, on its grand opening night.
The auditorium also houses “Mighty Mo,” a 3,622-pipe Möller Deluxe theater organ installed for the 1929 opening and considered one of the largest theater organs ever built, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's account. The organ fell into disrepair for decades before undergoing a 10-month restoration in 1963.
Modern Upgrades Alongside the Old Ghost Stories
The Fox has continued to modernize even as it leans into its haunted past. In May 2018, the theater opened a $10 million luxury expansion called the Marquee Club, which gives premium ticketholders direct access to private lounge and bar spaces, according to Discover Atlanta. Premium ghost tour tickets grant visitors access to the Marquee Club's rooftop and bar areas as well.
The theater now draws more than 500,000 visitors each year, per FOX 5 Atlanta's reporting. Revenue from shows and guided tours, including the seasonal ghost tours, helps fund historic theater preservation grants and community arts programs across Georgia through the nonprofit Fox Theatre, Inc., according to CBS News Atlanta — a grant initiative that pays forward the community support that saved the venue back in the 1970s.
Hoodline has previously covered the Fox's new year-round terrace lounge and its upcoming Broadway lineup, but this marks the first look at the theater's long-running ghost tour tradition, which returns this fall with expanded access to the sub-basement where Roosevelt allegedly still makes his rounds.
