Venus Theater

1412 Hull Street,
Richmond, VA 23224

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Additional Info

Architects: Fred A. Bishop

Functions: Housing, Retail

Styles: Renaissance Revival

Nearby Theaters

Venus Theater

The Venus Theater is located on Hull Street in South Richmond, VA. It was opened on March 18, 1925 with Marion Davies in “Janice Meredith” (aka The Beautiful Rebel). It was equipped with a Robert-Morton 2-manual organ which was opened by organist W.M. Loeffler. In 1929 the organ was moved to the Bishop Theatre, Hoboken, NJ. The Venue Theater operated as a movie theater until 1961. Now gutted and incorporated into an apartment building within the last few years. The ground floor is retail, but up to now there has been no tenant.

Contributed by Jeff Auth

Recent comments (view all 4 comments)

Ret. AKC (NAC) CCC Bob Jensen, Manteno, Illinois
Ret. AKC (NAC) CCC Bob Jensen, Manteno, Illinois on May 6, 2012 at 2:34 pm

Built in 1926, and showed movies till 1961, became retail, but don’t know how long it was abondaned before being bought in 1999 by Imani Community Development Corporation, Imani means faith in Swahilli, and the Development Corporation is affilated with the First Baptist Church of South Richmond. It is located in the Manchester Historic District, and Hull Street was like the second downtown. The Theater, a three-story mixed residential and commecial structure and two small single-story vacant retail structures have had had a $7.9 million “historic rehab” done to them making 68 apartments and first floor retail space.

It is a two story Classsical Revival-style building faced with cast stone and columns defining the bays. There is a stone horizontal superstructure with “VENUS” carved in the frieze and carved stone medillions below the cornice.

CT would welcome photos, past and present, inside and out, and more info.

DJA

Chief Bob Jensen
Manteno, Illinois

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on April 28, 2018 at 4:11 am

A permit was issued for a theater to be built at 1414 Hull Street in 1924. Mrs. E. A. Thorpe commissioned the project, which was designed by architect Fred A. Bishop.

rivest266
rivest266 on September 26, 2022 at 4:51 am

The Venus theatre opened on March 18th, 1925. Grand opening ad posted. It was closed by Neighborhood theatres in 1961.

Venus theatre openingVenus theatre opening 18 Mar 1925, Wed The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) Newspapers.com

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on September 26, 2022 at 8:14 am

I see that the grand opening ad just posted confirms Fred A. Bishop as the architect of the Venus Theatre.

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