Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 19/06/2026 22:34:00

Opened on 25 November 1920 as a vaudeville and silent-movie emporium, the Garden Theater anchored North High Street just south of Fifth Avenue and quickly became one of the premier entertainment spots north of downtown Columbus. For its first decades it was a neighbourhood picture house, at one point renamed the Lincoln, drawing crowds to the heart of what is now the Short North. The theatre's fortunes turned sharply in the second half of the century. After its longtime owner died in the 1960s, it slid into burlesque and, by the late 1980s, became a notorious venue for adult films. A church took up residence in 1996 before moving on in 2007, and the building then sat dormant until 2011, its grand interior decaying behind the High Street facade. Rescue came from Short North Stage, a professional theatre company that bought the property, began restoration and staged its first production in October 2011. The company brought the historic auditorium back to life and developed additional performance areas within the building, including the intimate Green Room and Ethel's Stage Left Lounge, named in a nod to the venue's past, so that several shows could run under one roof. Today the Garden Theater operates as a working producing house with a main auditorium seating around 300 after phased renovations. Short North Stage presents a weekly programme ranging from Broadway musicals and off-Broadway works to cabaret, dance and one-act plays, and the restored theatre has become a cultural cornerstone of the Short North Arts District, contributing to the area's revival while preserving one of central Ohio's oldest surviving entertainment venues. The theatre opened in November 1920 with a screening of The Soul of Youth, and by 1928 was briefly known as the Lincoln before reverting to the Garden; at its mid-century peak it could hold more than 600. Local lore holds that an opera house had stood on the site as far back as the 1870s before fire destroyed it. When Short North Stage took over, the auditorium initially seated only around 140, and the company raised funds to restore decorative plasterwork, the chandelier and the carpeted staircases while working toward its 300-seat goal. Plaques throughout the building mark key dates in its long and chequered history.