Kiel Center - St. Louis, MO - Art Deco - Art Nouveau on Waymarking.com

County of building: St. Louis Independent City
Location of building: Market St. & S 14th St., SW corner, St. Louis
Architect: Ellerbe Becket Architects
Architectural Style: Art Deco
Built: 1934

  "Kiel Opera House is a grand limestone-clad civic facility built between 1932-1934 in an Art Deco interpretation of the Classical Revival style. Its facade commands 322 feet of Market Street frontage on the Memorial Plaza as part of St. Louis' most significant grouping of civic institutional buildings. The facade is dominated by a projecting center block with a two-story eight-column Corinthian portico over seven front doors. The colonnade is flanked by wide, austere end blocks bearing large incised quotations. Set back about 25 feet to either side, the main volume of the original building is three stories high. The original Opera House extends south approximately 250 feet, where it is met by a large new auditorium. The building includes an approximately 3500-seat main theater with a front two-story lobby, four small side theaters or halls (with a capacity of up to 700 seats each), an exposition hall, basement cafeteria space, offices, dressing rooms, and other support spaces for the facility, as well as a new arena which seats approximately 18,000. The major original extant interior spaces are substantially intact.

  "Kiel Opera House was originally part of the Municipal Auditorium complex, which included an attached convention hall to the south. In 1994 the convention hall was torn down and replaced with a large sports arena. The non-contributing arena overshadows the Opera House only from its subordinate rear elevation; it is of minor impact on the building's important primary facade or its historic significance as a home for cultural events in St. Louis for six decades.

  "The exterior condition appears to be good in both the historic and non-historic sections. The interior condition varies; the main public spaces of the original Opera House appear to have some cosmetic problems including flaking paint and minimal plaster damage. Secondary spaces vary in condition from excellent to fair." ~ NRHP Nomination Form

"Kiel Auditorium was an indoor arena located in St. Louis, Missouri. It was the home of the Saint Louis University basketball team, and hosted the NBA's St. Louis Hawks from 1955 to 1968.

"From 1913 to 1930, the site was home to Charles H. Turpin's Booker T. Washington Theater where performers included his brother Tom Turpin. The Municipal Arena was completed in 1934 at a cost of $6 million. It seated 9,300 and was built by Fruin-Colnon Construction. The Kiel Auditorium replaced the St. Louis Coliseum as the city's main indoor arena. The Kiel was originally named the Municipal Auditorium, but was renamed in honor of former St. Louis Mayor Henry Kiel in 1943. A unique feature of the auditorium was that it was split into two; the front of the building was the Kiel Opera House. It was possible to use both sides at once as the stages were back to back. President Harry Truman gave a speech there in which both sides were opened to see his speech." ~ Wikipedia