Osbunn Theater

Around the 1920s, a theater was constructed on West King Street and opened the same year. The theater was named Osbunn, dedicated to the two original owners, Oswinn and Bunn Forest. It included a segregated entrance where people of color were forced to walk around the building to the separate entrance in the back. There was another entrance for white people, which was better in quality and easier to access at the front of the building, but access to that entrance was denied to Black people. The theater closed in 1958, when the owners died. During the demand for Civil Rights in the 1950s & 60s, segregation was outlawed in 1964, and Black people were no longer forced to enter buildings through inferior entrances in the back like they had been at the Osbunn Theater. After extensive renovation, and a tribute of the Osbunn Theater sign created, the site is now home to the restaurant Nomad. Originally, before becoming a theater, the building was built around 1910 and served as an undertaker’s parlor and meat market.

Photo Credit: Opentable

Exterior of Osbunn Theater that now houses the restaurant Nomad.