Lyric Center for the Arts
510 Chestnut Street,
Virginia,
MN
55792
510 Chestnut Street,
Virginia,
MN
55792
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Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980
Old Lyric Theater (added 1980 – Building – #80004872)
Also known as State Theater
506 Chestnut St., Virginia, MN.
Owner: Private
The building is still here! I have been in this theatre several times. The theatre is in the back of the building and the old curtain still is intact. The theatre had a balcony also. A local theatre group owns the building now and intends to restore it someday. It is a huge building with a ballroom upstairs. One of the front rooms is being used now for local plays and as an artist gallery. See the following for more info: http://lyriccenteronline.org/history.html
Opened in 1912. Renamed the State in 1920’s. Was operated by Publix until 1955 when it closed as a movie theatre. received a noew roof in 2001.
The name of one of the architects in the firm that originally designed the Lyric Theatre is misspelled as Ellerby. Franklin Ellerbe worked in partnership with Olin Round and William Sullivan for only a few years. In 1914 he established the independent practice that, taken over by his son Thomas Ellerbe in 1921, would eventually merge with the Los Angeles firm Welton Becket Associates to form the modern firm Ellerbe Becket, which is now operating as AECOM.
When the reopening of the Lyric Theatre under new management was noted in the January 23, 1925, issue of The Film Daily, the item mentioned the names of the other three theaters then operating in Virginia: the Rex, the Garrick, and the Royal.
They are having an open house at this theatre on August 16. Check out the link for more info http://www.virginiamn.com/image_4508482a-d50a-11e1-bba3-0019bb2963f4.html