Baden Theatre

8201 North Broadway,
St. Louis, MO 63147

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JAlex
JAlex on October 4, 2012 at 8:27 am

I mispoke when giving an opening year of 1916…it should have been 1926. Trade papers noted the construction contract in November 1925.

The other hardtop in the area was the Hoffman/Baden Family at 8237 N. Broadway which was listed in the 1911 City Directory.

Indeed, the Baden at 8201 replaced an airdome which had opened in 1921.

As well, there had been an earlier airdome at 8414 N. Broadway which had opened in 1915.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 3, 2012 at 10:11 pm

There might have been two houses called the Baden Theatre. The September 19. 1925, issue of The Reel Journal had an item about a proposed theater on North Broadway in St. Louis:

“Steve Kaiman, owner of the O'Fallon and Baden theatres in North St. Louis plans to build a new theatre at 8200 North Broadway, a block from the Baden. The new house will cost about $75,000 and seat 800 persons. The plans call for a two-story building, 60 by 130 feet. Contractors will be asked to submit bids on the construction work this week. Theodore Steinmeyer, International Life building, is the architect.”
Darren Snow’s CinemaTour page about the Baden Theatre says that the house opened in 1927, and was built on the site of a theater called the Baden Airdome, which had been in operation at 8201 Broadway since at least 1920. The magazine article gives the address of the proposed house as 8200 Broadway, which would be across the street from the actual location of the Baden, but that might have simply been an error.

Also interesting is the statement that the new theater’s site was “…a block from the Baden.” Perhaps that house a block away was the theater that opened in 1916, or perhaps it was the Airdome that opened in 1916. Either way, it seems likely that the existing Baden Theatre building was built in the mid-1920s, not 1916, though judging from the architectural style it could have been built in either year.

JAlex
JAlex on September 26, 2007 at 11:18 am

Theatre operated from 1916 to 1965. Seating capacity of 939.