PEABODY OPERA HOUSE

Built in 1934 as a municipal auditorium within a complex that also included a convention center, this theater was originally named the Kiel Opera, after the St. Louis mayor at the time. It was built in the City Beautiful style, a style that reached its peak in America with the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. After several restructurings, notably related to the construction of the nearby sports hall (the current Enterprise Center, where the St. Louis Blues play on ice skates), the auditorium closed its doors in 1991. Left derelict for many years, it was able to reopen in 2010 with the help of a city grant and a partnership with Peabody Energie (a mining company) under the name Peabody Opera House. Jay Leno, Aretha Franklin, and Chuck Berry, among others, premiered the reopening.

In 2018 thanks to a new partnership with the investment bank Stifel, the Peabody became Stifel Theatre.

The complex has seven theaters, including a 3,100-seat main hall and two-story lobby (all marble), four side rooms (each with a capacity of 700), an exhibition hall, a basement restaurant-bar, offices, dressing rooms and other technical spaces. At its peak, the Opera House attracted the best lyrical performers, Broadway shows, plays, dance companies, singers and internationally known artists.