SevenVenues March 2019 SevenVenues Newsletter - Spring | Page 8
8 SEVEN BEHIND THE SCENES SPACES (CON’T.)
“THE GYM”
The Municipal Auditorium at
East 9th and Granby Streets
was designed by Norfolk
architect Clarence Neff and
built during World War II, a
result of the overwhelming
military development that had
doubled the city’s population
between 1938 and 1941.
Neff’s design for the Auditorium,
in a style called “streamlined
moderne,” contained a 3000-
seat indoor arena and a separate
1800 seat theater—the Center
Theater. Finished in May of
1943, the Auditorium hosted
USO dances and shows, boxing
matches, wrestling matches and
concerts, from young Elvis to the
Carter Sisters.
By 1971, the newer and larger
Scope Arena opened, and in
1974 a group of community
leaders, led by Edythe Harrison,
founded the Virginia Opera, with
the Center Theater as home.
The Center Theater received a
ten-million-dollar renovation in
1993 that featured a dynamic
new facade, a three-story grand
lobby with floor to ceiling
windows, glittering chandeliers,
and an elegant staircase to
the grand foyer and balcony
levels. Renamed the Harrison
Opera House, the Virginia Opera
continues on as a primary tenant.
The Arena portion of the former
Municipal Auditorium (now
commonly referred to by staff
as “the gym”) is now used by
the production department of
the Virginia Opera as storage
and a staging and construction
area for sets.