History

What once was, and what has yet to be…

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The Lyric Opera House was built in 1912 and has a long history of community gatherings, presentations by local and touring companies, vaudeville acts and movies. The building was designed by Ellerbe, Round and Sullivan and housed the local YMCA, a radio station, the VFW, and a 580 seat theater. The theater held traveling Vaudeville acts until 1932 and featured performers including Mae West, W.C. Fields, and Boris Karloff!  In 1935 it was renamed The State movie theater when it was purchased by Paramount Studios and was active until 1955.  The space was then used for several retail outlets such as jewelry stores, a music shop, a TV shop, Brownie Furniture, ice cream parlors, a pizza shop, a photography studio, hardware store and until the 1980’s Virginia Floral.


Early storefront photo. Work was completed in 2017 to restore the storefront configuration including seven doorways in their original locations!  The marquee and flag will be added when the main theater has been completed.

As the story has been told, the daughter of one of the original owners, Mrs. Fleher, listed the building for sale in the early 60’s but did not have any luck finding a potential buyer.  She removed the original theater seats, took down the marquee in 1961, and sold off whatever theater equipment she could.  A few years later she was finally able to sell the theater to a gentleman with a vision of having a movie theater back on the main street. However, after struggling to maintain such a large building, the gentleman put it for sale in the 1990’s. Two downtown drinking establishment owners offered to purchase the building with the intention of tearing it down and replacing it with a parking lot.

Seeing the potential of the historic theater, the Laurentian Arts and Culture Alliance (LACA) was formed, incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation in 1998 and then purchased the building to save it from demolition. The building was renamed the, “Lyric Center for the Arts.”  With the structure secured, LACA began to remodel small portions of the building creating an art gallery and small performance stage, called, The First Stage, which was opened in 2006.  Since then the organization, and its patronage, have grown substantially. The renovated space has become known as The First Stage Art Gallery where new artworks are exhibited each month and artists gather weekly.  Until the lobby and 120 seat performance space is renovated the Lyric’s adult and children’s theatrical groups, the IRRRP & Small Part Players, perform in the Lyric Annex a performance space in a City-owned building adjacent to the Lyric Center for the Arts.

The original fire curtain still hangs in the historic Lyric Theater and is a work of art from Twin Cities Scenic Studios.