The home of ‘Little Broadway’ in the 1960s

Lyric Theater

Miami’s oldest theater, restored and reclaimed as the soul of Overtown’s cultural legacy.

Built in 1913 by Geder Walker, a Black businessman from Georgia, the Lyric Theater quickly became the cultural heart of Overtown — a 400-seat venue that anchored the district known as “Little Broadway,” alive with hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs that drew Black and white audiences alike. Its stage welcomed W.E.B. Du Bois, Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Whitney Houston, among countless others. For nearly five decades, it was a symbol of Black economic self-determination and artistic excellence in a city that offered neither freely.

The Lyric survived the eminent domain destruction that leveled most of “Little Broadway” in the 1960s, though it sat closed for decades. In 1988, the Black Archives History & Research Foundation of South Florida acquired and began restoring it, and today — now called the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater Cultural Arts Complex,  it stands as Miami’s oldest operating theater and a 400-seat home for performances, exhibitions, jazz concerts, spoken word, and community events. To walk through the Lyric is to understand that Overtown’s cultural legacy was never lost, only waiting to be reclaimed.