Liberty Center for the Performing Arts

200 Park Avenue,
Eunice, LA 70535

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Additional Info

Architects: Herman J. Duncan

Firms: Duncan & Barron

Functions: Performing Arts

Styles: Art Deco, Art Nouveau

Previous Names: New Liberty Theatre, Liberty Theatre

Phone Numbers: Box Office: 337.457.6577
Manager: 337.457.6577

Nearby Theaters

Liberty Theatre ... Eunice Louisiana

The Liberty Theatre originally opened on March 15, 1920 on 2nd Street, but moved to its current location four years later, as the New Liberty Theatre, opening on July 19, 1924 with a free children’s matinee at 09:30 and the official opening at 2pm with Corrine Griffith in “Lilies of the Field”. This theatre had 1,000 seats and cost $110,000 to construct. The exterior is sometimes described as Sullivanesque, while the interior is now mostly the result of a 1930’s Art Deco style remodel.

When it opened in 1924, the New Liberty Theatre was called “Southwest Louisiana’s Premier Temple of Amusement” and boasted running water and “typhoon-cooled” air as well as several dressing rooms for the live acts which would appear onstage in addition to movies in the Liberty’s early decades.

Among those to have appeared live at the theatre over the years were Fatty Arbuckle, the Bowery Boys, Lash LaRue and Tex Ritter.

Today, beautifully restored and renovated, and called the Liberty Center for the Peforming Arts, the theatre hosts a variety of live performances, and is home to both the Eunice Community Concert Band and the Rendez-Vous de Cajun radio and television show.

The Liberty Theatre was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 and is on the National Trust’s Guide to Great American Movie Houses.

Contributed by Bryan

Recent comments (view all 5 comments)

Don Lewis
Don Lewis on March 16, 2008 at 10:56 am

A 1986 photo of the Liberty in Eunice.

rivest266
rivest266 on September 27, 2018 at 1:38 pm

The old Liberty theatre opened on March 15th, 1920 and the new Liberty theatre opened on July 24th, 1924 and closed in January 1982 when the Queen twin cinemas reopened. Grand opening ad posted.

New liberty theatreNew liberty theatre Sat, Jul 19, 1924 – 3 · The Eunice News (Eunice, Louisiana, United States of America) · Newspapers.com

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 20, 2018 at 4:36 pm

Herman John Duncan Sr. (1891-1056) was the senior architect of the firm of Duncan & Barron, and began practicing architecture in Lafayette around 1912. Later he would form the firm of Herman J. Duncan & Co., succeeded by the firm of Duncan & Duncan with his son Herman John Duncan Jr. I’ve been unable to find out anything about his first partner, Barron, or how long that partnership lasted.

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