Dallas: Granada Theater

The Granada Theater has been a fixture of Lower Greenville since 1946, when it opened as an Art Deco movie house on Greenville Avenue. Its rounded marquee and neon sign still mark the block today, though the building has changed jobs more than once since its film-house days.

From Revival House to Rock Club

By the mid-1970s the Granada had drifted into a revival-house identity (and, for a stretch, adult film bookings, per its own history), before a 1977 renovation added a stage extension and sound system and turned it into a live-music venue. Artist James Franklin painted the lobby murals in 1981 — genre-themed film scenes and a “film goddess” ceiling motif that nod to the building’s cinema roots — and a 1987 remodel swapped out the original fixed theater seating for table seating on the floor. Ownership passed through several hands over the following decades — Louis Stool, then John Appleton and Keith McKeague, then Pat Snuffer — before Mike Schoder took over in 2004 and reopened it as a dedicated concert hall, later adding HD projection and updated air conditioning around 2010–2011.

Standing Room With Its Art Deco Bones

Today the roughly 1,100-capacity room runs mostly general admission on the floor, with a reserved-seating option in some configurations, and a full bar in the back. The Art Deco facade and murals are original enough that Lower Greenville regulars still talk about the Granada as a movie theater that happens to book bands, rather than the other way around.

Greenville Avenue puts the Granada a short drive from the Majestic Theatre downtown, and its calendar leans toward indie, rock, and hip-hop touring acts that wouldn’t necessarily fill either the Majestic’s seats or a downtown arena. Showtimes and ticketing run through the venue’s own site.

I’ve been here ♪