Roxy Theatre
827 Meridian Street,
Nashville,
TN
37207
827 Meridian Street,
Nashville,
TN
37207
1 person
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The Roxy Theatre opened in 1938 with a seating capacity of 500. It was operated by Crescent Theatres. In the 1950’s it was renamed Woodbine Theatre, after another theatre with that name had closed.
It closed as a movie theatre in July of 1960. It sat empty until 1980 when it went through a renovation and reopened as the Roxy Production Center with a recording studio and a 240 seat theatre.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
Crescent Amusement Co. purchased the property at the corner of Meridian and Wilburn in 1936 and the adjoining lot for parking, that fronts on Meridian St. and runs back to the alley, in 1937. The Roxy Theater opened about 1937 and first appeared in the Nashville City Directory in 1938. Before the theater was on the property, there was a pharmacy in the early days and later a dry goods store. The dry goods store was continued in the front of the building at the corner of Meridian and Wilburn until the mid 1950’s. This section of the building is one story with a basement. The theater was in the back two story section of the building at 303 Wilburn St. and the entrance and marquee was part of the way down the side of the building on Wilburn. The theater closed 1957-58 and by 1959 Nashville Revival Center is listed at the address. In 1960 there was a self service coin laundry in the space where the dry goods store had been. I seem to remember that a couple of years before the theater closed that it moved into the space that had been a storefront and a new entrance to the theater was opened at the corner but that may be wrong. My brother worked there until 1954 or ‘55 and the entrance was still on Wilburn at that time.
There was no theater listed at the address before the Roxy appeared in Nashville City Directories in 1938. There was a Rainbow Theater at 307 Wilburn in 1928 gone by 1931. This address is down Wilburn across the alley from the Roxy building. The Rainbow Theater shared a building with a dry cleaning business that remained for several years after the Rainbow Theater closed.
I found the same information as a previous poster. There was a Woodbine Theater in Woodbine on Nolensville Road in the Nashville Directory on Nolensville Road in the late 50’s and the Roxy is on Wilburn at that same time. If someone has any kind of documentation that the Roxy was ever called the Woodbine Roxy please post.
Great news! Plans are underway to restore the Roxy to its former glory: East Nashville’s Roxy reborn from the March 9, 2010 edition of the Tennessean.
Good I will check it out since I live pretty close.
Some confusion here with the Roxy/Woodbine connection. Woodbine is in south Nashville and the Roxys address is in East Nashville, maybe they just used that name Woodbine at the east Nashville location at some time. Any more info would be great.
There was another Roxy in Nashville but it was downtown,saw a photo of it last night on NPT Channel 8, I believe it was on 6th ave.It is not listed on C.T.
I am not familiar with another Roxy on 6th Ave. Any info is welcome.
I once nearly got kicked out of the Roxy by putting my feet on the seat in front of me.
Roxy Theater History
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Debie:
That is an excellent piece on the old Roxy and its neighborhood.
In 1923 my mother’s family briefly lived across Meridian from this property and she attended Glenn School nearby. Then some years later one of her sisters lived several blocks up Meridian from this point when she was married to Paul Roark, the son of the barber you mention. During those years I have attended the Roxy with my cousins, the children of the Roarks.
The Roxy business district used to be a very nice safe area and I hope the new owners will return that to the neighborhood.
@Debie…I live in the immediate area of The Roxy and wanted you to know that I ran across your piece today. I’ve had it distributed to the surrounding East Nashville neighborhood associations…so you may hear from some of them, hopefully. Thank you for sharing the history.
I’m not sure if you were aware of this when you wrote the piece, but here is a link regarding the Roxy in 2011. We ARE planning to see its “glory” return…hopefully. Here is a recent piece from The Tennessean on the plans…
View link
Lisa
You are welcome Lisa. I grew up in the area. I barely remember the theater being open but remember going to the speedwash that was in the building. My older brother and several of my uncles worked at the Roxy.
Dave, I had no idea that you had Northeast Nashville ties. I remember going to Mr. Roark’s home, after he retired, with my Daddy.