Lyon's State Theatre
221 South Main Street,
Franklin,
VA
23851
221 South Main Street,
Franklin,
VA
23851
1 person
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The State Theatre dates back to the 1930’s. In around 1942, the name was changed to the Lyon’s State Theatre. The building was home to a church at one time. They moved out and the building was unused for a while. Another church now occupies the building.
Contributed by
Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
This building is part of a historic district in Franklin, Virgina and the district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“The Lyons State Theatre at 221 South Main Street is among Franklin’s most stylish buildings dating from the 1930s. Expressive of the Art Deco style, popular with movie theatres of the age, the facade exhibits such details as fluted stone or concrete bands and panels contrasting with recessed brick panels which together form typical Art Deco decorative patterns”.
Here is the National Register of Historic Places nomination form.
Two years ago,it was clearly just sitting there doing nothing in hulking emptiness.
Following up with ghamilton’s post, the building appears to still be doing just that. It looks like it was repurposed at some recent point, from what the marquee looks like in the Google Maps street view. However, it appears to be closed and abandoned at present.
When you do an address search, this comes up as the Move of God Church, so the building is in use as a Church.
Yes,I was in Franklin last week.( I wander willy-nilly) It is NOW being used as a church,again.
Anyone know when it stopped being used as a theater? I remember going there in the mid-70s with a special young lady. Even then it seemed a bit of an anachronism – a single screen in the middle of a small town. Thank you for posting this, brings back good memories!
When I moved to Franklin in 1999, this movie theater was being used as a dance studio. The seats had been torn out and the floor filled in to make it level. A church moved in shortly after the people who owned the dance studio moved out. I can’t say for certain when, but another church moved in and they did buy this building. They have since become a mainstay in the community. The city did, however, at some point between churches, replace the overhang with grants. Dan Howe,President of the Downtown Franklin Association asked that the city keep it so that he could put a museum in it to promote the area. The city declined.