Lyric Theatre

820 West Gallia Street,
Portsmouth, OH 45662

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Schine Circuit Inc., Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.

Firms: DeVoss & Donaldson

Previous Names: Law's Hollywood Theatre

Nearby Theaters

LYRIC Theatre; Portsmouth, Ohio (September, 1944).

Opened September 3, 1925 as Law’s Hollywood Theatre. It was renamed Lyric Theatre in 1927. In 1928 it was taken over by the Schine Circuit Inc. By 1941 it was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp. It was still open in 1950.

Contributed by Lou Rugani

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 8, 2012 at 10:26 pm

Archiplanet says that the Lyric Theatre dates from 1912, was at 820 Gallia Street, and was listed on the NRHP in 1999 but has since been removed (Presumably due to its demolition.)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 8, 2015 at 8:25 pm

It seems that Archiplanet conflated two theaters. There were two houses in Portsmouth called the Lyric Theatre. The first one was a building with an arched entrance, and was located in the 400 block of Chilicothe Street. This must have been the theater dating from 1912.

The newer Lyric Theatre, at 820 Gallia Street, actually opened on September 3, 1925, as Law’s Hollywood Theatre, and was designed by the local architectural firm DeVoss & Donaldson. The Hollywood Theatre is advertised in The Portsmouth Daily Times through 1926, and is mentioned in January, 1927, but the September 8, 1927, issue of the paper has a reference to the Lyric Theatre Building on Gallia Square. As the Hollywood/Lyric was on Gallia Square and the original Lyric was not, the name of the theater must have changed in 1927.

In 1928, the Schine circuit took over operation of the Lyric Theatre, along with the LaRoy and Columbia Theatres. I haven’t discovered when Warner Bros. took over the house.

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