New Grand Central Theatre

The theater's Moorish-styled front stood within a block of storefronts and marquees along North Grand Avenue. Inside, an ornate auditorium carried carved gargoyles overlooking the seating floor, with a pit sized for a 21-piece orchestra and a Wonder Kilgen pipe organ built into the house. Seating ran to roughly 2,500 by nominal count, though closer-set rows made the practical capacity closer to 1,850.

The Rex Amusement Company built the theater at 702 North Grand Avenue, on the block also known as Grand and Lucas, to a design by Helfensteller, Hirsch and Watson. It opened in 1913 (sources give March 31 and April 1) as the Grand Central Theatre and was later operated by the Skouras Brothers. A 1921 remodeling enlarged and renamed it the New Grand Central Theatre, reconfiguring its seating from 1,750 to a nominal 2,500. The house drew several St. Louis firsts: it was the city's first theater to show a talking picture, screening Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer in 1927, and in June 1929 it premiered On with the Show, the city's first all-color talking musical. Later operated by Arthur Enterprises Inc. and the St. Louis Amusement Co., the theater closed in 1931; one account has it reopening in 1935 under new management before a final closing that October. Sources disagree on the exact demolition year — the City of St. Louis's neighborhood history gives 1948, Cinema Treasures gives 1948-1949 — after which the site became a parking lot, in what is now the Covenant Blu-Grand Center neighborhood.