Lyric Theater

The same year that Arizona became the 48th state and HMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic, the first Lyric Theater was built on East Liberty Street by a local entrepreneur, Ed Mott. It began with 300 seats and showed 20-minute silent films projected by kerosene-lit and hand-cranked projectors. By 1931, the era of cinema featuring the legendary Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin, the theater had been renovated to seat more than 1,000 people. The theater continued to operate under various ownership until 1988. The original building was torn down in 1999 to make room for the recently closed White Jewelers store.

Lyric II Theater

In 1935 Mott, along with his wife Zella Rhinesmith and business partner John Kinney, opened a second theater on Buckeye Street named the Wayne Schine’s Theater which showed lower budget productions. It became the Lyric II Theater thirty years later and was run by Mott’s daughter, Margaret Brubaker and her husband Walter. The theater became a community-focused establishment catering to local youth. It was a centerpiece of Wooster life for 10 more years until it closed in 1978. Once closed, The Daily Record—who now owned the building—tore it down to make parking.

Lyric Twin Cinema

The following year, 1979, the Lyric Twin Cinema was built in the current location, on the corner of South and Market Streets. It would be a premier destination for movies and fun for residents across Wayne County and Holmes County. Closed in the 1990s, it operated in the 2000s as a second-run theater, The Big Picture. There has not been a downtown theater since it closed its doors in 2010.

Our non-profit, the Downtown Arts Theater, acquired the building in July of 2021 with the intent to bring the legacy of The Lyric back to downtown Wooster and to lead the growth in economic development south of Liberty Street.

*History comprised from Wooster Daily Record article “Wooster History: New Project Revives Memories of Old Lyric Theaters” written by Bryce Buyakie