Behind the Building: Brick Street Bar

Today, Brick Street Bar is a staple of the Uptown experience for Miami students. Still, you can tell from a glance at the building that there may be more history there than meets the eye.

“Brick” as it’s affectionately known by students, located at 36 E. High St., was built in 1938. The property lot was once home to the private residence of Arthur Ramsey, a local Oxford dentist at the time, and housed other private businesses. However, on Sept. 23, 1938, the original building was demolished and the movie theater was built by the F&Y construction company.

The building was originally named Miami-Western Theatre, after the private Western College for Women and the public Miami University. After Western College closed, the theater was briefly renamed "Miami Theatre," and multiple other businesses including "Act 1" and "This-n-That" also operated from the front area of the building.

Photo by Provided by Heritage Ohio | The Miami Student

The Miami-Western Theatre's front entrance in 1950. Brick Street still uses the marquee for messaging today.

In 1979, the theater was included in the Ohio Historic Inventory under the ownership of Katherine Snook. The theater was later listed as “historic” in the Uptown Historic District Inventory. This means that the theater was recognized as having a historic form and character, likely due to its central location in Oxford. Additionally, the building qualifies as “historic” due to its age and popular frontage.

Part of the old movie theater decorations remain today at the Oxford Lane Library. The large mural in the library displays the Art Deco style that would have originally been throughout the theater, both inside and out. The mural made by Stiver Studios in 1938 also pays homage to the women's college that once helped populate the theater and was responsible for the name.

In the ’70s, the exterior was largely the same as today, yet the brick on the side was originally a yellow adobe brick rather than the white seen today. Another notable change is the lack of the original lights above the main signs on the outside of the theater, though those have been gone since 1979.

However, the marquee that often displays different phrases each night is original to the building, as are parts of the original curved white tiles that flank the marquee, possibly dating back to its opening.

The Miami-Western Theatre closed its doors after 50 years. In 1990, the building underwent remodeling to become a bar called First Run in 1993. This establishment lasted only a decade before what we now know as Brick Street took over the location in 2004.

Now, the Art Deco style inside has long since been replaced with various sports jerseys, posters and beer signs. Nevertheless, when walking through the bar someone can imagine what it might have been like as a central theater for the Oxford community.

childssb@miamioh.edu