Concordia Turner Hall (Arsenal Street)

A three-story red brick hall filling a street corner, set on a base of rough-cut limestone. Long rows of tall, segmental-arched windows ran along both street fronts beneath a corbelled brick cornice. The corner was cut back at an angle to hold the main entrance, with a large round emblem reading CONCORDIA TURNERS mounted above the door and a pair of round-arched windows at the top. A lower wing with a balustraded parapet and urn finials continued down one side street. Inside, a large hall with a curtained stage hosted balls and performances.

The Concordia Gymnastic Society was founded in 1875 and named for Concordia Park on the south side, where it first held its activities. The cornerstone of its own hall, at Arsenal Street and what was then Carondelet Avenue, was laid on January 24, 1877, and the building was dedicated on November 18, 1877, at a cost of $19,500. By the early 1880s the society counted 410 members and 445 gymnastics pupils, along with a library and a singing school. At the hall it held gymnastics classes and served as a cultural and entertainment center for members from Soulard, Benton Park and Senate Square. Construction of Interstate 55 forced the society out in 1962, and it moved to a new home on Gravois Road. The hall was torn down, and its site now lies under the northbound highway lanes at Arsenal Street.