Powell Symphony Hall
718 N. Grand Boulevard,
St. Louis,
MO
63103
718 N. Grand Boulevard,
St. Louis,
MO
63103
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Powell Hall is undergoing a major renovation. The seating capacity is being reduced a little while new buildings are going up on either side of the historic theatre. My understanding is that it will be done next year.
November 25, 1925 grand opening ad as St. Louis in photo section.
1944 photo added courtesy of Donald Oswald‎.
1954 photo as the St. Louis Theatre added courtesy of the Vintage St. Louis Facebook page.
I heard that the interior of this theatre was repainted in the last year to accent more of the plasterwork. Anyone heard anything? Also, I would like to see the symphony install some sort of “ grand drape” over the proscenium. That fire curtain thing they have hanging there now looks horrible. Any opinion on this?
The new vertical sign was installed in Aug.2007. While reports state that,“ its a copy of the original,” don’t be fooled. It’s not! I will say it looks great though. The exterior of the building now needs a good cleaning!!
This circa mid 70s photo shows some interior detail:
http://tinyurl.com/244lgx
Just saw online that a new sign was added to Powell. It’s an upright marquee in the place of the old one that was removed in the 1960s. I don’t know how close to the original it is, but I really doubt it is close. Here is a link to pics View link
Here is an article about the renovation from the Northwest Arkansas Times, dated 1/22/68:
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra will no longer have to compete with
rock ‘n’ roll musicians in the battles of the bands. The symphony has a new home, a glittering palace complete with crystal chandeliers
and a very proper bar salvaged from the New York Metropolitan Opera building which is now just a memory.
“It’s a dream, it’s just a dream”, said Walter Susskind, new conductor for the orchestra. The dream becomes reality Wednesday night when the symphony presents its first concert in Powell Hall, named for Walter S. Powell, whose widow provided a generous endowment for the project.
The orchestra’s new home was built more than 40 years ago as a movie theater to end them all with a 70-foot domed ceiling in the auditorium, Italian marble floors, carved and gilded mouldings. But its history wasn’t as happy as its promise, until now. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Society purchased the theater two years ago for about $400,000. Renovation has cost about $2 million.
Powell Hall (the old-St. Louis)and the Michigan in Detroit may have some common elements, but are not twins.
Rapp & Rapp, shall we say, “mixed and matched” a number of times.
I’m certainly not being negative when saying this, but one must remember that in the mid-20s these movie palaces were coming off the drawing boards at a pretty fast clip and certain architectural-features could appear in more than one theatre.
To cite one example: the organ screens in the St. Louis (covered up in Powell Hall) can be seen at the Rialto Square in Joliet.
Yes, the Michigan located in Detroit. (I usually don’t say the city if a theater is located in Detroit.)
Powell Hall is said to be a twin of the Michigan. I find the lobbies to be very similar, but the auditorium of the Michigan appears more like the Rialto Square.
I also agree that the name should be St. Louis Theater, not Powell Symphony Hall.
Perhaps the theater was built for Metropolitan theaters, it was on the Orpheum circuit, and was later owned by Skouras Brothers.
In above, it was $100,000 annual rental for a 10-year term.
An news story in the Globe-Democrat of March 6, 1925 tells the tale of Metropolitan Theatres being sued by the person who was hired to negotiate the lease of the theatre to the Orpheum Circuit. Terms were $100,000 rental for 10 years and 50% of the profit.
Incidentally, on this website, shouldn’t the theatre be listed as the ST. LOUIS Theatre as that was the name when a “cinema treasure”?
Possibly the only way to be really sure, is to go to the Register of Deeds and take the time to locate all covenants annd deeds recorded for the legal description of the land the theatre occupies. It is true that a theatre can have a separate land owner, a local builder or building owner, and still be “built” by a chain of theatres, in the sense that they lease the site and building from a local owner, but it is their plans that are completed; thus all mentioned may have been involved at some point. Contracts may be recorded there or perhaps with the Secretary of State.
According the Landmark Association’s book on St. Louis landmarks, it says that it was built as part of the Orpheum chain. JAlex might be right with it being built for Metropolitain theatres, but the book says nothing about Skouras Brothers ever building it.
The Powell Hall was not built for the Skouras Brothers, it was built by the Orpheum chain.
The St.Louis was not built by Skouras Brothers, nor was it ever operated by that firm.
The St. Louis was built by Metropolitan Theatres, a local firm which included Harry Koplar.
Opening date was November 23, 1925.
As the St. Louis it had an original seating capacity of 3881.
When the St. Louis opened, it was considered a “Junior” Orpheum house—meaning it featured five acts of vaudeville and a feature film with continuous performances.
As a movie house, the St. Louis closed on Oct. 31, 1966 after a 19-month run of, appropriately enough, “The Sound of Music”.