Booker T. Washington Theatre

The 1,500-seat Booker T. Washington Theatre was part of a thriving Fifth Ward, African American Business District in the 1920’s along what was Odin Avenue. The theatre got off to a great start by all accounts and the area was one of the few places in which the City of Houston allowed persons of color to live. The Booker T. Washington Theatre was operated as a vaudeville and movie theatre. It was owned by Paul Barrasso and the manager was Victor Abram. The stage measured 20x30 feet and there were five dressing rooms and a four-piece orchestra. The theatre was joined by a number of other competing theatres that outshone the Booker T. Theatre.

The Booker T. Washington Theatre was not able to reach the sound era with the building converted to other retail uses. The Gulf Freeway project came along in the 1940’s and was designed to cut the Fifth Ward into two pieces and, in so doing, destroy the business district and disrupt the continuity of Houston’s African American neighborhood. The address once housing the Booker T. Washington Theatre building is now a desolate tract of land right near what is now Interstate 69 and can be mapped to 2711 Lyons Avenue. As one can see, it was “mission accomplished” for the City of Houston.

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