The City of Newberry subsequently renovated portions of the building for offices and utilized the upstairs hall for public functions. The movie house ceased operation in 1952.
This new balcony, in accordance with Jim Crow law and custom, accommodated African American moviegoers, who reached it via a newly constructed exterior stairway. This conversion entailed removing the horseshoe balcony and replacing it with a simpler one. In the 1930s the Newberry Opera House was converted into a motion picture cinema. The building’s cornerstone was laid in 1881 and the structure was finished the following year. Normann’s plans, which were completed in 1880, called for municipal offices on the ground floor and a theater upstairs that was arranged as a double-height space with a horseshow balcony. Located in the heart of Newberry, the building’s design mixes several architectural styles in typical Victorian fashion: Italianate window frames grace the first floor the tower profile suggests the Romanesque and Gothic Revival elements frame the main entrance and the tower’s upper portion.
The campaign ultimately resulted in the renovation of the building and the return to its original use as a theater.
In the second half of the twentieth century it became the subject of one of South Carolina’s longest historic preservation campaigns, lasting almost forty years. Normann of Atlanta, was originally erected as a combination city hall and venue for traveling theatrical shows. The Newberry Opera House, an eclectic brick structure designed by Gottfried L.
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