Lyric Theater - Boonville MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 58.426 W 092° 44.586
15S E 522253 N 4313897
Old classic building purchased by Fox and made a movie theater.
Waymark Code: WM15155
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 09/25/2021
Views: 0
County of theater: Cooper County
Location of theater: Main St. & Vine St., Boonville
Opened for movies: 1912
" ... Around 1912, the owners added accommodations to permit moving pictures accompanied by live piano music, but vaudeville and plays still utilized the stage. Renamed the Lyric Theater in 1915, the building was purchased by Fox Midwest Theaters in 1929 and fitted out for "talkies."
"By 1936, Fox proposed replacing the Hall with a modern movie place. ... " Marker on sire erected by Hannah Cole Chapter and Missouri State Society, D.A.R. in 2008
"n 1912, it was again transformed, this time into a movie theater, the Lyric, which it would remain for another six decades, closing in 1975.
When the Lyric was once more was faced with the threat of being demolished, in 1937, the Friends of Historic Boonville was formed to prevent the loss of the great old theater, one of the earliest preservation groups founded in the Midwest, and the first in Missouri.
Aided financially by the Kemper Foundations, the group took over the theater in 1975, and began the long task of restoring it to its original appearance." ~ Cinema Treasures