Arts & CultureSunday, November 1
The Lincoln Theater held a soft opening, and its grand opening is set for November
The Daily Baton Rouge team
If you grew up around South Baton Rouge, this one's for you. WBRZ reports the Louisiana Black History Hall of Fame, which bought the vacant Lincoln Theater in 2010, welcomed patrons inside Thursday evening for a soft opening. The grand opening is scheduled for November.
- First show: “Mahalia: A Gospel Musical,” set for December
- Name Your Seat: call (225) 317-1849 to donate a nameplate
- Funding: city-parish grants, state allocations, and private donors
WAFB says the restoration took nearly 15 years. The Lincoln opened in 1949 as one of only three places in Baton Rouge where Black residents could go to enjoy live entertainment, and it hosted James Brown, Otis Redding, and Louis Armstrong before closing in the 1980s.
Nearly 15 yearsof restoration work on the Lincoln Theater, per WAFB
WBRZ calls it a decade-long restoration and says funding shortfalls were among the obstacles.
The building now has office spaces, an esports lounge, and a recording studio. U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields told the soft-opening crowd, “This is a place I actually watched movies.”