The Lyric Theater opened in 1909, on the corner of Wilson Ave and North Main ST in downtown Blacksburg. In the 1930 it moved to it’s current location with a 900 seating capacity (reduced to 477 in 1990’s reconstruction), state of the art equipment, an orchestra put, and a pretty big luxury for the time, air-conditioning! It was one of the vey first cinemas in the state of Virginia to show sound pictures.
In 1989 due to the opening of a new multiplex as well as home video introduction and changes to how film was distributed the Lyric was forced to close. From 1989 – 1994 it became classroom space rented out to Virginia tech, as well as the Democratic Headquarters each fall.
Then in 1994-1997, a group lead by downtown merchants, created the Lyric Council that worked to re-open The Lyric Theater and restore it to it’s former glory. In 1998 the theater had a soft re-opening while raising money for renovations and officially re-opened in 1999 when they were complete. After many years of hard work, it became what you see today!
It’s said the Lyric is haunted by two ghosts. The first is described as a woman who can be heard shrieking from the lobby, or the apartments above the theater late at night. Not much is known about her origins.
The other is said to be of a construction worker who fell off while building a wall during the building’s construction. This ghost has been known to touch employees and customers.
We did a video on this awesome theater. Give it a watch to see this wonderful theater, and hear about the spooky stories associated with it:
You can find out more about the theater on their website it was the source of this article.
