Seventh Street Theatre
25 S. Seventh Street,
Minneapolis,
MN
55403
25 S. Seventh Street,
Minneapolis,
MN
55403
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Minneapolis' first Orpheum Theatre opened in 1904, an elegant and luxurious Beaux-Arts building built for the Orpheum vaudeville circuit.
Seating around 1,490, the Orpheum Theatre’s impressive facade of limestone and terra cotta featured the circuit’s name boldly inscribed above the two-story colonnade above the main entrance, which was covered by a simple glass-and-iron canopy marquee. In the early years, the only signage on the first Orpheum Theatre was the theater’s name in large letters on the rooftop, illuminated by lightbulbs at night.
Among the many big-name performers in the Orpheum Theatre’s vaudeville days was Houdini, in his first Minneapolis appearance, in 1915.
When the Orpheum circuit built the much larger and more ornate Hennepin in 1921, they made that theater there new Minneapolis home a year later, renaming it the Orpheum Theatre. The first Orpheum Theatre reopened in 1922 as the Seventh Street Theatre, and switched over to movies.
The Seventh Street Theatre closed in 1940, and was torn down soon after, a sad ending for a still-beautiful and usable theater.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
The Seventh Street Theatre opened on October 22nd, 1904.
This is a circa 1911 postcard showing an Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis.
The first Orpheum was designed by the architectural firm of Kees & Caldwell. The same firm later designed the Loring Theatre and the Stimson Building, the two-floor commercial block associated with B. Marcus Priteca’s Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis.
Oy. I meant Kees and Colburn, of course. Where did Caldwell come from? I need to get more sleep.
This picture is of the Orpheum in St. Paul. After it’s Orpheum days it became the President. Otherwise the info on the first Minneapolis Orpheum later the 7th street is correct.
Please delete the photo. It is not the Minneapolis Orphuem but the St Paul one!