Byrd Theatre

About this property

The Byrd Theatre is a cinema in the Carytown neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. It was named after William Byrd II, the founder of the city. The theater opened on December 24, 1928 to much excitement and is affectionately referred to as "Richmond’s Movie Palace". Though equipped with a Wurlitzer pipe organ, the theatre was also one of the first of its kind to be originally outfitted for sound motion pictures. Built in 1928, the theater cost $900,000 (inflation adjusted equivalent $12,430,000 in 2014) to construct. The builders were Charles Somma and Walter Coulter. The Byrd Theatre opened for the first time on December 24, 1928. At the time, adult tickets were 50 cents for evening shows and 25 cents for matinees, while a child's ticket was only 10 cents. The first movie was the film Waterfront, a First National film starring Dorothy Mackaill and Jack Mulhall. In addition, the manager at the time was Robert Coulter, who remained the manager until his retirement in 1971, and is rumored to haunt the theatre. In 1953, the original 35mm Simplex standards were replaced by newer projectors of the same model. The Byrd was originally segregated. The balcony was intended to accommodate African-Americans, but instead the theater did not open its doors to blacks until the 1960s. Until then, if a black person came to the theater, he or she would be given admission and cab fare to any of the black theaters in the city. As of 2023 the theatre plays second-run movies for $8.00 per ticket with the exception of certain festivals such as the Richmond French Film Festival, held annually in March; however, in March of 2023 the theatre announced it would be unable to hold the festival that year, and the festival was discontinued in 2024. In 2007, the Byrd discontinued regular playing of classic movies at midnight shows on Saturday nights due to dwindling attendance. On March 15, 2024, William Shatner hosted the world premiere of his biographical documentary William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill at the Byrd. The theatre's architect and contractor was Fred Bishop, and is considered to be of a French Empire style design. Inside, the theatre contains orchestra seating (main) for 916 and balcony seating for 476. The balcony is open whenever attendance requires and occasionally at other times by making a donation to the Byrd Theatre Foundation. The interior features a lavish design by the Arthur Brunet Studios of New York. In addition to eleven Czechoslovak crystal chandeliers, including an 18-foot, two-and-a-half ton chandelier suspended over the auditorium (with over 5,000 crystals illuminated by 500 red, blue, green and amber lights), the interior features imported Italian and Turkish marble, hand-sewn velvet drapes, and oil on canvas murals of Greek mythology. More unusual features included a central vacuum system and a natural spring and pool in the basement which used to supply water to the air conditioning system.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Richmond County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Richmond County.

More historic places in Virginia

Browse all historic places in Virginia.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Virginia history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.