An octagonal open-air bandstand in the picturesque, eclectic taste, raised on a red-granite base and framed in wood. Slender columns painted white, green, and dark red carry a fanned tongue-and-groove ceiling and a scroll-cut frieze pierced with circular openings, and a low balustrade of interlaced iron rings encloses the platform. Above rises the landmark roof — a broad bell-shaped tier of red sheet metal swelling into a smaller onion dome, capped by a scrolled crest, a gilded orb, and a tall spire. Six pink-granite columns set in the surrounding lawn carry stone busts of composers.
The bandstand was built in 1872 to the design of Eugene L. Greenleaf for Sunday-afternoon concerts, and it became a favorite spot of Henry Shaw, who gave Tower Grove Park to the city. Around it stand six granite columns bearing busts of Shaw's favorite composers — Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini, Gounod, Verdi, and Wagner. The interior of the roof was lowered in 1910, and electric lighting was added later. The first color scheme of olive, cream, mustard, and brown has since given way to white, red, and turquoise, though the bright red roof has been kept. It remains in use for concerts and weddings.
