urbanSTL

It was purchased by Jubilee World INC according to NextSTL

Oh dear god! Well . . . at least it won't be torn down for a little while.

^ my sentiments exactly.

While this isn't an ideal use, in my opinion. I've seen several cases around the Midwest where a church will make minor improvements to a historic theater and then a full restoration is done a few years later. Most recently, that was the case with the Fox in Springfield, MO. So overall, simple occupancy of this building is great news. Unfortunately the biggest issue is that there still isn't demand for another theater or music venue, especially downtown. I was always surprised that it wasn't used for Conventions, even with the Farrera.

I did say that it would help to spare it demolition for a time, at least. But this is a special case. I worry that someone will destroy the terracotta in the name of propriety. Or that they won't keep it up. Or that the "improvements" will be anything but. A space like that requires a bit of special care. I suspect that demand for a venue is there, since we've built several new ones in the past ten years, of various sizes both smaller and larger than the Orpheum. Is the it downtown specifically? I'm less sure of that. It could be . . . with the right vision. And for every theatre you can think of where a church moved in and it was restored I can probably name another where a church moved in and then moved out leaving it vacant. And perhaps two where a church moved in and it was demolished. The Orpheum is special. It's really surprisingly old. It's not an old movie palace. It's an older Orpheum Circuit house. (The current name is a reference to this.) It's perhaps the best surviving example of its era and style in the state. Maybe in several states. And yes, the Springfield Fox is of similar vintage, but I gather it's smaller, and unlike your example, the Orpheum still has the original plasterwork largely intact. From all I can find the Springfield Fox was gutted and remodeled sometime in the sixties or so, and I don't see any evidence there's really all that much original fabric left beyond the building steel. They're not the same animal. I do hope you're right and that the church will be a faithful steward of our shared culture for a time. I hope you can forgive me if I am a little skeptical of this.

I emailed Jubilee to gather more info. Abridged version of my email below.

"Are there plans to have a variety of music and comedy acts for the theater or will it only be used for Jubilee World music and performance acts events?"

And here is their response.

"Thank you for your interest. Yes, that is a good question everyone is wondering about this since our organization is Christian based, but we are not a church. However, we are very community orientated and history preserving. We want to preserve the Orpheum name and the wonderful history. We will have a 100th Anniversary event for the public to be announced as well as concerts. Also, we are visiting and structuring the plan of public events celebrating the St. Louis culture as well as tasteful comedy. The theater will be a performing and arts venue. Although Jubilee World will utilize the space for performing arts and students, we want to be collaborative with the community.
News will post our vision shortly."

Well, that's much more hopeful than I would have expected. We shall see. But . . . I really don't want to lose this one. The Ambassador was a heavy blow. The Granada was almost as bad, and much more personal.

Well, this should be interesting... STLToday reporting ties Jubilee World has to Olivet University. Apparently the university's president might just be the second coming of Jesus. JUICY!!!

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 8bb10.html

Looks like a water main burst inside the theater building.

http://fox2now.com/2018/01/10/water-spi ... tre-doors/

Haven't heard of any activity by Jubilee. Hopefully they are good properties owners and make sure the problem is handled.

I've always dreamed of the venue becoming the House of Blues - St. Louis....

I hadn't thought of it becoming a restaurant. I've always wanted Hard Rock to move into the CBD. I know Hard Rock usually leans much more on the restaurant side than the performance side but that would be pretty cool as well.

Any of you fancy downtowners hearing anything about this?

STLrainbow wrote: ↑

Mar 31, 2018

Any of you fancy downtowners hearing anything about this?

That would be a negative from me.

Just walk the other day by the theater and started googling about the history and what’s happening with the theater and all I found was a 2017 article from NextSTL that Jubilee World bought it.

Does anyone have any updates?
Did it shut due to Covid?


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^ good question. it's been silent for years. i think it flooded pretty bad due to a water main break or something right after Jubilee bought it. no idea what's going on with it now. such a waste.

urban_dilettante wrote:^ good question. it's been silent for years. i think it flooded pretty bad due to a water main break or something right after Jubilee bought it. no idea what's going on with it now. such a waste.

Thats sucks! Hopefully they do something with it. I started looking at pictures and is impressive.


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Phish has a pretty famous live album recorded there. Cool album artwork but I can't find a high quality image

Honestly I'm surprised the CVC or Marriott hasn't taken it over at some point. Seems like it would be a perfect addition for conventions with either organization.

^ Which has the aesthetic splendor that of the Touhill, if I'm being generous.  Just a bland, sterile space.

dweebe wrote: ↑

Apr 11, 2023

courtland wrote: ↑

Apr 11, 2023

There are a lot of things we get wrong in this town, but putting our sporting venues downtown wasn't one of them... 

Which also means two concerts this weekend at Enterprise.
Fri 4/14: Kane Brown (country music) 
Sat 4/15: New Edition + Guests 

Speaking of concerts, I have a dream where we reactivate an incredible venue like the old American Theater (Roberts Orpheum) instead of building venues in strip malls and trying to make them urban and gritty by calling them "The Factory".  Does anyone know the status of this space?  I thought a church purchased it at some point.