More than a decade in the making, Lincoln Theater inches closer to reopening

The restoration of the historic Lincoln Theater, once a popular cinema and entertainment venue in South Baton Rouge, is inching closer to reopening, organizers said during a community progress report and open house on Dec. 20.

Led by Louisiana Black History Hall of Fame founder Brenda Perry Dunn, volunteers have worked for more than a decade, enduring slow fundraising, construction delays and soaring costs, to renovate the building at 1305 Myrtle Walk.

The once-dilapidated structure, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, has seen a $4 million investment and is now in the final stages of construction. And while no opening date has been set, it appears the building will reopen sometime in the first half of 2026, organizers say, bringing staged productions, films and educational programs for children and youth. The complex will also feature the new Louisiana Black History Hall of Fame Museum and Cultural Center in an expanded east wing.

Board members Evelyn Dumas and A.V. Mitchell hosted the Saturday event inside the Lincoln. With other volunteers, they pointed out its completed features, including new exterior windows made by the same manufacturer as the originals. Similarly, the terrazzo floor tile that once welcomed patrons is being preserved and matched with a new 17-foot tile entryway. Fresh stage curtains have been embroidered with the same script “L” as their predecessor. Paint and chair colors were coordinated to mimic past designs. Visitors also saw a nearly completed concession area, green room and two-story museum and cultural center.

“We wanted to make sure this place was restored to the original state as much as possible,” Mitchell said.

The building’s iconic neon marquee will be hung soon, said board member Michael Domingue, pointing out two steel beams on the side of the building ready to hold it in place.

“We’ve had it replicated,” he said. “It’s all new and will just look like the old one. When it’s installed, it’ll light up the whole block.”

Visitors saw an expanded stage, modern lighting and crimson upholstered seats in the orchestra section. Theater programming will be run by UpStage Theatre, a veteran theater organization founded in 2002 in Baton Rouge.

Balcony seats still need to be restored. Former District 10 Metro Councilwoman Tara Wicker announced a name-a-seat campaign to raise funds to complete the project.

The theater opened in 1949 and was a cultural bastion in South Baton Rouge, then a thriving middle-class Black neighborhood. The Lincoln was a key gathering place during segregation. Children and families attended movies while adults flocked to its live shows, which included big names like Cab Calloway, James Brown, Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton.

Before it was shuttered in the ’80s, the complex also housed a deli, barbershop, pharmacy and offices where significant civil rights organizing took place, including a meeting between Rev. T.J. Jemison, leader of the 1953 Bus Boycott in Baton Rouge, and Martin Luther King Jr., who would replicate it in Birmingham beginning in 1956.

Former Dist. 67 State Representative Patricia Haynes Smith, a longtime Lincoln Theater advocate, said the museum will feature kiosks with rotating subjects, including former Lincoln performers, Civil Rights leaders, politicians, educators, business leaders and others. Smith served in the Legislature from 2008 to 2020 and was the first public official to find public funding for the building’s early-stage improvements.

She also grew up in the neighborhood and remembers attending movies at the Lincoln throughout her youth.

“When people say something to me about the Lincoln, I say, ‘You mean the Phoenix?’” she told the crowd on Saturday. “Because it’s been like the phoenix rising from the ashes.”

For more information, visit lbhhf.org.