Lyric Theatre
411 W. Nepessing Street,
Lapeer,
MI
48446
411 W. Nepessing Street,
Lapeer,
MI
48446
1 person
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After building the Pix Theatre, George Smith decided to build the Lyric Theatre down the street. It opened in late-1921 and showed silent films at first, until 1928 when talking films came to Lapeer. I’m not exactly sure when it closed, but it became the Lyric Mall. In 2011, it is a bicycle shop
Contributed by
Nick Sortzi
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
September, 2006 photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detroitsky/363088501/
Here is a 1985 view of the mall:
http://tinyurl.com/coycaa
The history section of the official web site for the Pix Theatre says that the Lyric was built in 1921 by George Smith. That means the Lyric Theatre at Lapeer that was mentioned in the April 16, 1918, issue of Michigan Film Review must have been a different theater.
Could this earlier Lyric have been the theater built in 1914 by George Smith, on a site adjacent to the site on which he built the Pix in 1941? The Pix history section doesn’t give the name of Smith’s 1914 operation, but as his second theater was called the Lyric perhaps he was reusing the name when he built this Lyric in 1921.
The site does say that Smith finally closed the second Lyric for good in the mid-1950s. For many years the Lyric and the Pix had operated mostly at different seasons, as the Pix was air conditioned and the Lyric was not.
The Lyric Mall has been replaced by a bicycle shop.
The Lyric Mall is not a bicycle shop. It was repossessed by the bank 3 or 4 years ago. At that time it had a health food store, a watch repair shop, an art studio and a few other businesses. It was purchased late December 2014 and is being renovated. Although it will never be a theatre again the goal is to fill it back up with unique shops and play off the history of the theatre as much as possible.
The March 12, 1921, issue of The American Contractor said that architect G. O. Garnsey of Chicago had drawn the plans for a theater that was being built at Lapeer by George F. Smith.
Architect George O. Garnsey was born in 1840, so he was in his eighties when he designed the Lyric Theatre. He died in 1923.
Great art deco inspired marquee and entrance. Mall entrance is not as dramatic.