Booker T. Washington Theatre

Hi guys, I’m a local archivist and I’ve done a lot of work in the Mill Creek neighborhood. I just uploaded an exterior drawing of the theater I found in one issue and made note that there exists a real-photo postcard of the theater at a local black history museum. In the future I’ll add more to this specific entry as I’ve written quite extensively (for my research) on this particular theater. If you check out the (plug) St. Louis Argus newspaper archive I put together on the Internet Archive (1915-1925) you can find in each issue (usually the last page) a theater/arts page. The Booker theater seems to hold a very high position in the minds of the paper editors as they usually dedicate an entire column to the current acts/shows being exhibited there—versus no more than a brief note for the other theaters.

In March 1913 it was announced that Charles Turpin has leased the site at the southeast corner of 23rd and Market for a theatre. He had been operating an airdome on the site for four years. The cost of the structure was to be $29,000 and the architect was J. M. Hirschstein.