An 1899 rendering of the Des Moines Auditorium
By Dave Elbert
Two components of the 20-year-old Iowa Events Center were renamed this week. As of Tuesday, Wells Fargo Arena is now Casey’s Center and Hy-Vee Hall is EMC Expo Center.
This is not the first, and surely not the last, change for Des Moines’ performance venues. The first three major ones — the Auditorium, Coliseum and KRNT Theater — no longer exist.
The Auditorium
The city’s first big space for events was the 3,000-seat Des Moines Auditorium, built in 1899 at 516 Fourth St., two blocks south of today’s Events Center. That building still stands, minus most of its 19th-century architectural features, as a garage and warehouse.
When the Auditorium opened in August 1899, it had two balconies and a stage that could hold as many as 500 performers. Supporters claimed only one opera house in the country, in Chicago, was larger. Opening night featured music and speeches by Gov. Leslie M. Shaw and Mayor John MacVicar Sr.
It took three years to raise the $35,000 to finance the three-story building but only 55 working days to erect it. According to materials from the chamber of commerce, officials hoped the Auditorium and the city’s early adoption of electric street lights and “dry roads that are available for bicycling,” would attract tourists and conventioneers.
They did. More than 80 conventions were held in Des Moines the first year the auditorium was open, including a Mothers’ Congress and a national gathering of music teachers.
The Coliseum
The rapid increase of conventions required a larger venue, and in 1908 a fundraising goal of $100,000 was set for a Coliseum that would hold 10,000 people.
There were a few stumbles, and the cost climbed to $125,000. But by the end of 1909, the new Coliseum stood more than three stories tall on the west bank of the Des Moines River, north of the new 1903 library and directly across the river from where a new city hall would be built in 1912.
The Coliseum opened with an agricultural exposition that featured a 3-foot ear of corn from Peru and a state-of-the-art biplane. Six-day bicycle races were held inside during the early years, and on Sept. 11, 1941, the Coliseum hosted Charles Lindbergh’s famous anti-war speech during the America First movement before World War II. It drew a crowd of 8,000 who alternately booed and cheered both Lindbergh and President Roosevelt, whose nationwide radio address preceded Lindbergh’s talk.
The Coliseum had been advertised as “fireproof,” but it burned down in 1949 and was replaced in 1955 with Veterans Memorial Auditorium. Built on a hill overlooking downtown, the new $5.25 million auditorium could hold more than 15,000 people.
KRNT Theater
The Auditorium was replaced in 1927 by the Shrine Temple Auditorium at Ninth and Pleasant streets. Backed by local Masons, the theater cost $1.3 million and could seat 4,200. The humorist Will Rogers performed at its opening, on April 6. (Photo courtesy of the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce.)
The KRNT Theater was replaced in 1979 with the $9.7 million Des Moines Civic Center at 221 Walnut St. The old theater was acquired by Principal Financial Group in 1983 and torn down.
Today, the 2,700-seat Civic Center is one of several venues owned and operated by Des Moines Performing Arts, along with Cowles Commons across the street and the Temple Theater in the beautifully preserved Temple for Performing Arts, which Masons built at 1011 Locust St. in 1913.
After 46 years, the Civic Center remains an essential part of Des Moines cultural life. The former Auditorium is now storage space, the long-gone Coliseum has been replaced by the new federal courthouse, the KRNT Theater is now a pocket park — and the newly renamed Casey’s Center serves some of Iowa’s most popular pizza.
Dave Elbert has covered Iowa business news and local history for more than 40 years, first for the Des Moine Register and then the Business Record.
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