Lyceum Theatre

Joe Vogel on August 21, 2022 at 10:11 am

Something has arisen. I have found sources attributing the design of the Lyceum to architect J. M. Wood. In fact, one web site, drypigment.net, has two articles by the same author, one of which attributes the design to Fran Cox and the other of which attributes it to J. M. Wood. Neither article mentions both architects.

At this point I’m more inclined to go with Wood as the architect, as there is a period source, namely multiple editions of a promotional book from the Winslow Bros. Ornamental Iron and Bronze Company, containing lists of projects for which Winslow Bros. had supplied ornamental pieces, and all editions I’ve found attribute the house to Wood. So far I haven’t found any period sources attributing the work to Cox.

Joe Vogel on June 13, 2014 at 11:46 pm

The second Lyceum Theatre was designed by architect Frank Cox (Tignal Franklin Cox) who was then practicing in New Orleans. Later he moved to Chicago and then to Covina, California. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries he was a prolific theater architect with a national presence, a feat all the more impressive given that he did not begin practicing architecture until he was nearly 40 years old, having been a sign painter and a scenic designer prior to that.

vastor on February 8, 2012 at 2:17 pm

The first Lyceum theatre was in the lower level of the Memphis Athletic Association on the northwest corner of Third and Union. There is a drawing of this building in the library’s collection that references the theatre. This is the building that burned in 1893. The second Lyceum, in the photos here, opened in 1894 and was demolished in 1935. This second was used by Loew’s from 1916 to 1920, the year Loew’s State opened.

Joe Vogel on September 27, 2010 at 7:38 am

The New York Clipper Annual (available online from the Columbia University Libraries) says that the Lyceum Theatre in Memphis was dedicated on September 29, 1890. Interestingly, the Barton Opera House in Fresno, California, is listed as having been dedicated the same day.

An Arcadia Publishing Company book titled Memphis, by Robert W. Dye, has a photo of the Lyceum dated 1935, but the caption says the theater was built in 1894. It turns out that the original Lyceum burned in November, 1893, with a loss of $360,000 according to the 1896 edition of the annual The Statistician and Economist.

In 1951, a thesis/dissertation was published by the University of Mississippi. Titled “The Lyceum theater of Memphis, 1890-1900” and authored by Carolyn Powell, a copy is in the University’s library but not available online. The same library has a masters thesis dated 1971, by Gordon Theodore Batson, titled “The theatrical history of the Lyceum Theatre of Memphis, 1910-1935.” This is not available online either. It seems likely that the Lyceum operated from 1890 to 1935, with an interruption of about a year for rebuilding in 1893-1894. Had it continued in operation beyond 1935, Mr. Batson would probably have written a longer thesis.

This web page displays the cover of a program from the Lyceum Theatre for the 1924-1925 season. It housed a stock company at that time. Unfortunately the theater’s address is not on the program.

The closest I’ve been able to get to an address for the Lyceum is a note in a 1901 issue of the Memphis Medical Monthly, which mentioned a doctor who had lately moved his office to the Lyceum Theater Building, southeast corner of Second and Jefferson streets.

I’ve had no luck discovering the architect of either the 1890 building or the rebuilt Lyceum of 1894.