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OMAHA AUDITORIUM

The Omaha Auditorium was located on the southeast corner of 15th and Howard. It opened on June 7, 1904 and was privately owned for the first decade of its existence.

Here is a brief description of the auditorium and its costs of construction from A. E. Shelton's Semi-Centennial History of Nebraska, 1904:

"The Omaha Auditorium building is two hundred and sixty-four feet long and one hundred and thirty-four feet wide. It is built of brick, stone and steel, and is covered with tile, which makes the building fireproof. It has a seating capacity of seven thousand five hundred and the length of the arena floor for horse show purposes is two hundred feet and the width is seventy-five feet. The stage is sixty-eight by one hundred and twenty-eight feet. It was built by a stock company with a capital stock of $500,000.00. The cost of construction was $200,000.00 and the ground upon which it is placed cost $55,000.00, making the total cost $255,000.00."

In Born Rich: A Historical Book of Omaha Margaret Patricia Killian gives the following account of the building of the auditorium:

"Construction of our first city auditorium began in 1900 with the construction estimate of three hundred thousand dollars. Miniature gold bricks in the form of lapel pins were sold for one dollar to be worn by donors to spur the fund drive. The campaign fell short at one hundred eighty thousand, but construction went ahead hopefully."

Hopefully, but not, alas, successfully:

"The building was considered a barn-like blemish on the city and a disappointment to John Latenser, Sr. He had designed a beautiful facade which was never constructed. The auditorium had been reduced to a mere skeleton. When the city took possession in 1915, the land was worth as much as the building."

The Auditorium was purchased by the city of Omaha in the summer of 1915 for $150,000, which was the amount of money still owed on the property by its original owners.

In the 1950s the new Omaha Civic Auditorium at 18th and Capitol superseded the old Omaha Auditorium, which was demolished in 1963.

During its 50-odd years run the Auditorium was visited by a fair number of political and artistic celebrities:

"Among the events lending glamour to the building in its heyday were presentations of grand opera, Sarah Bernhardt in Camille, Sousa's Band, Paderewski, Caruso, and Vatican Choir. Its walls have echoed the voices of William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, Woodrow Wilson, and Alfred Smith." (Federal Writers' Project, 193-)

At least one celebrity, however, shared the low opinion of the building's appearance held by Killian:

"When Leopold Stokowski conducted a concert of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra in the auditorium in 1936 he commented that the building was a triumph of ignorance over civilization." (Federal Writers' Project, 193-)

Federal Writers' Project. Omaha: A Guide to the City and Environs. Originally published sometime in the late 1930s. Edited and Indexed by Omaha Public Library History Librarian Linda Miller in 1981. Pages 114-115.

Hewitt, Richard. History of Omaha, 1854-1954. Omaha: P. C. Doss & Co., 1955. Page 54.

Killian, Margaret Patricia. Born Rich: A Historical Book of Omaha. Omaha: Assistance League of Omaha, 1978. Pages 128-129.