Booker T. Washington Theatre

A purpose-built theater opened on Market Street in 1913, designed by the architect J. M. Hirschstein at a cost of about $29,000 and seating close to a thousand. It replaced the open-air "airdome" that Charles Turpin had operated on the same lot for the previous four years.

Charles Udell Turpin, a businessman and, in 1910, the first African American elected to political office in St. Louis, had already run an open-air "airdome" theater on the site for four years when he leased it for a permanent theater building in March 1913. The $29,000 building, designed by architect J. M. Hirschstein, opened on July 14, 1913, seating either 506 or 1,000 depending on the source; locals called it "Bookers." Turpin's brother Tom Turpin — the ragtime pianist behind the nearby Rosebud Cafe at 2220-22 Market — ran piano contests at the theater in its early years, drawing performers such as George Coins, Charles Thompson, Owen Marshall, and Raymond Hines; a blues contest appeared by 1915, the last ragtime contest was held in 1916, and jazz followed in the 1920s. As a member of the Theatre Owners' Booking Association, the Black vaudeville circuit, the theater drew major touring performers including Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Bill Robinson — the jazz musician Elijah Shaw recalled playing behind Robinson there in 1927, on a bill organized as a benefit after a tornado struck the city. As children, both the future entertainer Josephine Baker and the blues guitarist Henry Townsend found inspiration at the theater — Baker performing on the sidewalk outside hoping to be noticed, and Townsend deciding to pursue music after hearing Lonnie Johnson play there. The theater closed on September 28, 1930, and was demolished soon after for a widening of Market Street.