Help The Lyric Theatre reach its funding goal for renovations and capital improvements!
A local theatre, brimming with history… – Sahar, patron
It is hard to imagine Downtown Blacksburg without our community-oriented non-profit theater.
– Pat, community partner
The Lyric Theatre opened for the first time as a for-profit “moving picture” theatre in Downtown Blacksburg.
The Lyric Theatre was first opened in 1909 on the corner of Wilson Avenue and North Main Street in downtown Blacksburg. The following year (1910), however, the theatre was moved to a more prominent location on the corner of Main and Jackson Streets; the site of the current Wells Fargo Bank Building.
The Lyric opened at our new location on College Ave as a “talking picture” theatre.
Work was begun in 1928, and the new Lyric opened its doors in April 17, 1930. The Lyric was a premiere movie house, with a seating capacity of 900, state of the art equipment, an orchestra pit, and (quite a luxury for the time) air-conditioning. In fact, it was one of the very first cinemas in Virginia to show sound pictures. The theatre’s seating capacity was reduced to 477 after renovation in the 1990s.
The Lyric was closed as a film house and used as a community meeting space.
In 1989, the opening of a new multiplex combined with the changing nature of film distribution and advent of home video forced the theatre to close its doors. From 1989 to 1994, although closed as a film house, the Lyric continued to have a life as a large classroom rented to Virginia Tech and as the Democratic Party Headquarters each fall.
The Lyric Council formed and planned to restore the theatre as an arts and community hub.
In return for raising the funds required to renovate the theatre and hosting regular programs, the Blacksburg Realty Property Partnership, then the property owners, granted the Lyric a 30-year rent-free lease. 1996-In February 1996, the Lyric was reopened for the first time in eight years. The theater was operated as a partially renovated space for two years while money was being raised for the full-scale renovations.
The Lyric celebrated their second grand-opening after renovations.
The theatre closed for seven and a half months to allow renovations to be completed. Finally, in October of 1998, the renovated theatre was opened to the public with regular programs.
The Lyric goes digital to continue to present new movies.
For several years, the film industry had been transitioning from 35mm print film to digital cinema. It was essential that The Lyric make this transition if they were going to continue to show current films. Through the support of a community fund raising effort, the theatre was able to install a state-of-the- art 4K digital projector in the summer of 2013.
