1930 Art Deco Cinema with a Construction Worker and a Screaming Wall
135 College Ave, Blacksburg, VA 24060
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Film tickets typically under $10; live performance tickets vary. Check thelyric.com for current pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved, flat entrance on College Avenue; historic building with some level-change areas
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1930 · Art Deco Architecture · Virginia Cinema History · Community Arts
The Lyric Theatre's history begins in 1909, when an earlier iteration of the theater operated on Wilson Avenue and North Main Street before relocating twice and eventually settling at 135 College Avenue in the early 1920s. The current structure was purpose-built, with construction beginning in 1928. The completed theater opened its doors on April 17, 1930.
Roanoke architect Louis Phillipe Smithey designed the building in a blend of Art Deco and Spanish Colonial Revival styles. The facade originally featured Comedy and Tragedy masks that became an identifying landmark; they were removed in the 1950s due to structural safety concerns and later disappeared. In 2006, replicas were installed during facade restoration work.
At its 1930 opening, the Lyric seated 900 patrons and offered state-of-the-art projection equipment, an orchestra pit, and air conditioning — a luxury for the period. It was among the first Virginia cinemas to screen sound pictures, placing it at the technological frontier of early sound-era cinema.
The theater closed in 1989 as multiplex competition eroded its market. It sat dark for eight years before reopening in 1996. Renovation work completed in 1998-1999 transformed it into a not-for-profit community arts space operated under the name it still carries. A digital projector was installed in 2013. The Blacksburg government's Facility Directory lists the theater as a community resource, and Virginia.org features it in regional cultural guides.
The US Ghost Adventures Blacksburg Ghost Tour and the Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Foundation's annual Haunted History Tour both include the Lyric on their routes, citing it as one of the region's best-documented architectural haunts.
Sources
The paranormal accounts at the Lyric Theatre have been documented more formally than at most small-city theaters. Barbara Smith's 2002 book Haunted Theaters, published by Ghost House Books, devotes an entire chapter to the Lyric's documented phenomena — an unusual level of attention for a regional venue.
Smith's research found that the theater's oldest reported presence is associated with a worker who died during construction of the current building between 1928 and 1930. Witnesses have reported hearing a male voice originating from the balcony area. The account describes it as distinct — not an ambient sound but a localized voice — and its presence near the construction-era balcony has led to the attribution.
A second, separate account involves a woman's voice heard screaming 'Let me out' from within one of the theater's walls. This report is documented by Spooky Appalachia and the Virginia Haunted Houses database, both of which cite it as one of the theater's most frequently noted phenomena. Staff members who work alone in the building before and after performances have described hearing it.
The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's student newspaper, has covered the Lyric's haunted history in multiple articles and documented an overnight stay in the theater that yielded accounts of footsteps on the stairways, muttering with no visible source, sudden cold breezes, and the screaming voice. Staff members independently described encounters with the same phenomena, without knowledge of each other's accounts, before they were aggregated.
The theater's ghost stories are sufficiently well-documented and specifically detailed — tied to the architecture, to particular locations within the building, and to a named publication — to be taken seriously as archival accounts of reported phenomena.
Notable Entities
The Lyric Theatre hosts films and live performances year-round at 135 College Ave. The building's paranormal reputation — centered on a construction worker said to have died during the 1928-30 build and a female presence heard screaming from inside one of the walls — is part of the theater's documented folklore. The Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Foundation runs an annual Haunted History Tour that includes the Lyric.
The Lyric has operated as a not-for-profit community arts space since 1998, showing independent and repertory films and hosting live music, dance, and lectures. One of the first cinemas in Virginia to screen sound pictures, the theater opened April 17, 1930. The Art Deco facade with its replica Comedy and Tragedy masks is visible from College Avenue.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Joliet, IL
The Rialto Square Theatre opened May 24, 1926, designed by Chicago firm Rapp & Rapp for the six Rubens brothers. Its Neo-Baroque interior — modeled in part on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles — earned it a place on the American Institute of Architects's '150 Great Places in Illinois' and a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Richmond, VA
The Byrd Theatre opened on December 24, 1928, on West Cary Street in Richmond's Carytown neighborhood. Designed by architect Fred Bishop in an opulent French Empire style, the 1,400-seat movie palace remains in continuous operation as a cinema and live-performance venue. Robert Coulter served as manager from opening night until his retirement in 1971.
Norfolk, VA
The Wells Theatre opened August 26, 1913, as a vaudeville and legitimate-stage house built by brothers Jake and Otto Wells. Designed by the New York firm E.C. Horn & Sons in Beaux-Arts neoclassical style, it once seated 1,650 across three balconies and twelve boxes. The Virginia Stage Company has been the resident professional theater company since 1979, and the building is owned by the City of Norfolk. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 19, 1980.