St. Louis City Downtown
Prints Available
https://www.stifeltheatre.com/about-us/history
The theatre has over 80 years of vivid history to celebrate. We look forward to writing the next chapter as Stifel Theatre.
The 3,100-seat main theater was completed in 1934 as part of the Municipal Auditorium complex that included the 9,300-seat Convention Hall that later became known as Kiel Auditorium. Construction on the Convention Hall was not completed until 1936. Designed by architects Louis LaBeaume and Eugene S. Klein, construction on the Municipal Auditorium began in 1932. The Opera House is all that remains of the original complex and extends south approximately 250 feet, where it meets Enterprise Center, the arena completed in 1994 that replaced Kiel Auditorium. Its facade extends 322 feet along Market Street frontage on the Memorial Plaza as part of St. Louis' most significant grouping of civic buildings.
The Opera House features seven venues, including an ornate main theatre with approximately 3,100 seats and a two-story front lobby (constructed entirely of Tennessee and Ste. Genevieve marble), four small side theaters or halls (with a capacity of up to 700 seats each), an exposition hall, basement restaurant/bar space, offices, dressing rooms and other support spaces for the facility. During its height of activity, the Opera House attracted the world's finest performers, including concert artists, Broadway shows, plays, dance companies, symphonies, blues, jazz, country-western, rock, grand opera and light opera. It also presented several Veiled Prophet balls, choral pageants, civic events, and traveling exhibits.