Meadville’s Academy Theatre was open to the public in 1885 as the Academy of Music by Ernest P. Hempstead, a local newspaperman and art lover. During the late 1880s, the Academy Theatre was a popular opera house. The theatre opened in 1901 with Lillian Mortimer’s “No Mother To Guide Her.” The theatre at one time hosted vaudeville shows and the first “talkies” in town. From the 1950s until the 1980s, the Academy Theatre was a movie house. Today the Academy Theatre is Meadville’s venue for all kinds of artistic and cultural events, shows, educational classes and can even be rented for special celebrations.
275 Chestnut St, Meadville, PA 16335, Phone: 814-337-8000