Attucks Theatre

The Attucks Theatre served as an entertainment and commercial center for the region's African American community from its opening in 1919 until its closing in 1953. Its upper floors housed several professional offices, and the 600-seat theatre presented movies, plays, and live performances by artists including Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole, and Dizzie Gillespie. The Twin City Amusement Corporation, created by black businessmen from Norfolk and Portsmouth, developed the theatre to establish a cultural center in the heart of the minority community where citizens would be treated with dignity and respect. The corporation chose local African American architect Harvey N. Johnson to design the building at age 25. The theatre was named for Crispus Attucks, an African American recognized as the first patriot to die in the American Revolution, and its original fire curtain portrayed Crispus Attucks and other Boston colonists under fire from British soldiers during the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770; Lee Lash Studios of New York designed the curtain. It remains distinguished as one of the nation's oldest surviving playhouses completely financed, designed, constructed, and operated by African Americans.

Norfolk, Virginia · United States