The story
Voters approved a $4 million bond, and the Chamber of Commerce and the city bought the land in 1927. The Public Works Administration paid 55 percent of construction costs. The Municipal Auditorium opened on October 4, 1937, with a first performance called Rhapsodic Rhythms.
It was renamed the Civic Center Music Hall in 1966, when a remodel shrank the main hall, added mahogany paneling and replaced the portable floor with a sloped fixed one. From 1955 to 1959 the Oklahoma City Stars basketball team played there. A WPA art center, the Oklahoma Art Center, was housed in the building and later merged into the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in 1989. The Little Theatre closed in 1985 after damage from age, misuse and a fire, and was later renovated. The hall reopened in September 2001 after a three-year renovation and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
What's There Now
It is a performing arts center that hosts the Oklahoma City Ballet, Philharmonic, Rep and Painted Sky Opera, among others.
Everything that was here
- 1937–present · still open
Civic Center Music Hall (Municipal Auditorium)Music Venue
A New Deal auditorium that opened in 1937, was remodeled in 1966, and is still one of the city's main stages.
See the map in 1938 → - until 1989
Oklahoma Art CenterOther
A WPA Federal Art Project community art center housed in the auditorium; it merged into the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in 1989.
See the map in 1989 →
Did you know?
Nearby history
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