At one point long after its pinnacle, the Lyric theatre was only valued at $10. That was in 1993 when the empty and derelict theatre was obtained¹ by the Birmingham Landmarks organization for preservation.

Opening in 1914, the theatre immediately became a regional icon of the era hosting vaudeville shows. Touring vaudeville shows were a popular form of entertainment in the United States until the 1930s when they were gradually replaced in popularity by the motion picture. By the 1930s the vaudeville era was on the decline² and the Lyric evolved into a cinema. While Birmingham, Alabama has a very tumultuous racial history, it is notable that the Theatre was one of the first places in Birmingham and the South where African-Americans and whites could attend the same show, although seating was segregated.³

The Lyric closed and reopened multiple times throughout the middle of the century, declining in prominence until the 1970s. During the final decade of operation, the Theatre was a pornographic cinema first known as the Foxy Adult Cinema and then the Roxy Adult Cinema. Even in 1979, the prospect of restoring the Theatre to its original use as a performance space was considered.¹ Sometime in the early 1980s the last film was shown at the venue and it was left to deteriorate for the next few decades.

Despite intentions to resurrect the Theatre in the mid-1990s, it took over 20 years for that idea to come to realization. During this interval, the downtown area of Birmingham was nearly void of activity and business investment. ⁴ It was not until around 2008 that interest both in the Lyric ⁴ and revitalization ⁵ of the disused urban core made real progress possible. ⁶

Thanks to visibility at events such as the Sidewalk Film Festival ⁴ and the “Light Up the Lyric” campaign, funding was finally secured to begin restoration. ^4,7 After decades of disuse, it only took two years of renovations to allow the Lyric Theatre to reopen in January 2016. ⁸ The restoration and revival of the Lyric is just one element of the larger movement to reinvigorate the Birmingham city center which was an increasingly desolate environment during the last half of the 20th century due to numerous social and economic factors. ^6,9

During the last few years of dereliction, Birmingham Landmarks allowed photographers to document the state of the auditorium as well as the attached office building. In return, the organization only asked for the use of the photos which were then used to advance the drive for restoration.