Ambassador Theatre (St. Louis) facts for kids
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| Address | 411 N. 7th Street St. Louis, Missouri 63101 United States |
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| Capacity | 3,000 |
| Current use | Razed |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1926 |
| Closed | 1997 |
| Architect | Rapp & Rapp |
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Ambassador Theater Building
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 Location in Missouri
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| Location | 411 N. 7th St., St. Louis, Missouri |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1925 |
| Architect | Rapp and Rapp |
| Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals |
| Demolished | 1996 |
| NRHP reference No. | 83001039 |
| Added to NRHP | March 29, 1983 |
The Ambassador Theatre was a super fancy movie theater in St. Louis, Missouri. It was designed by a famous architecture company called Rapp and Rapp. This amazing theater opened in 1926. It was known for its beautiful 1920s design. Sadly, the building was torn down in 1996.
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Building the Ambassador Theatre
Plans for a big new building in St. Louis started as early as 1925. The idea was to build a 22-story office building. It would also have a large movie theater inside. The whole project was expected to cost about $2.5 million.
What they actually built was a 17-story building. The first six floors held the huge theater. It had 3,000 seats! The theater itself cost $5 million to build. Even the organ inside cost a lot of money, about $115,000.
The Ambassador Theatre officially opened on August 26, 1926. It was very popular right away. In its first year, over 2.6 million people came to watch movies there.
The Skouras Brothers' Dream
The Ambassador Theatre was a dream come true for the Skouras Brothers. These brothers were Spyros, George, and Charles Skouras. They wanted to build a world-class movie theater in downtown St. Louis.
Their dream became real in 1926. The Ambassador Theatre Building cost $5.5 million. It was built on a great spot in the city. The 17-story building was home to the fancy cinema. It also added a tall office tower to the city's skyline.
Less than 20 years before, the three Skouras brothers came to St. Louis from their home country of Greece. They started with very little. But they worked hard and became very successful in Hollywood. Their story is a true "rags to riches" tale.
Theatre Design and Style
The Skouras brothers chose Rapp & Rapp to design the Ambassador Theatre. This company was famous for designing theaters in Chicago. They had already designed the St. Louis Theater in 1925. Today, that building is known as Powell Symphony Hall.
Rapp & Rapp also designed other famous theaters. These included the Chicago, Southtown, and Uptown theaters in Chicago. They also designed tall buildings that had theaters inside. For example, New York City's 29-story Paramount (1926) and Cleveland's 21-story Palace (1922).
Unique Architectural Details
For the Ambassador, Rapp & Rapp used a special style. It was inspired by the French King Louis XIV. This style uses fancy designs from the French Renaissance and Baroque periods.
The top of the Ambassador Theatre had a unique design. It featured a decorative band called a cornice frieze. This band was made of terra cotta. It showed mythical creatures called griffins. Griffins are like lions with eagle wings. In old stories, they were known as guardians of treasure. These griffins looked out over the city rooftops.
The architects also designed a grand entrance for the theater. It had huge windows along Locust Street. These windows were 30 feet tall! They were decorated with beautiful terra cotta in a Renaissance style. You could see theater masks of comedy and tragedy on the panels.
The three floors of theater offices faced Seventh Street. These floors had special terra cotta panels too. They featured pairs of sphinxes. Sphinxes are ancient Egyptian symbols of power.
