The Fillmore Detroit Facts for Kids

The Fillmore Detroit is a cool place in Detroit, Michigan, where people go to see concerts and other fun shows. It's run by a company called Live Nation. This building was first built in 1925. For a long time, it was known as the State Theatre.

You can find The Fillmore Detroit in the Detroit Theatre District on Woodward Avenue. It's right across from Comerica Park, where the Detroit Tigers play baseball, and Grand Circus Park. It's also close to the bigger Fox Theatre.

The Fillmore Detroit has a large theater with a fancy main lobby and three levels of seats. There's also a place called the State Bar & Grill, which has its own entrance and is open even when there are no shows. Every April, the Detroit Music Awards are held here. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 because it's an important historical site.

Quick facts for kids
The Fillmore Detroit
Construction
Exterior view of the venue (c.2007)
Former names	State Theatre (1925-37; 1982-89; 1991-2007) Palms Theatre (1937-82) Clubland (1989-91)
Address	2115 Woodward Ave Detroit, MI 48201-3469
Owner	Jim Forbes
Operator	Live Nation
Capacity	2,900
Opened	October 29, 1925
Renovated	2007, 2018
Reopened	June 13, 2007
Website


Francis Palms Building & State Theater
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Architect	C. Howard Crane
Architectural style	Beaux Arts
NRHP reference No.	82000551
Added to NRHP	November 24, 1982

History of The Fillmore Detroit
The Fillmore Detroit Today
- Becoming The Fillmore Detroit
- Restoring the Historic Building
American Idol at The Fillmore
Gallery
See also

History of The Fillmore Detroit

The land where The Fillmore Detroit stands today had another theater before it. This older theater was first called the Central. Then, from 1913 to 1923, it was known as the Grand Circus Theatre. That theater was torn down to make space for the new building in 1925.

Building the Francis Palms Building

The new building was named the Francis Palms Building. It was named after Francis Palms, who came from France in 1832. He became very rich by buying and selling land in Detroit. His family continued to work in real estate. They built this new theater when Detroit was growing fast and movies were becoming very popular.

The theater was built in 1925 to show movies. It was designed in a style called Renaissance Revival, which looks like old European buildings. C. Howard Crane was the main architect who designed it. The building is still called the Francis Palms Building today.

Changes in Names Over Time

When the theater first opened in 1925, it was called the State Theatre. Over the years, its name changed a few times. In 1937, it became the Palms-State Theatre. Then, in 1946, it was simply called the Palms Theatre.

In 1982, it went back to being called the State Theatre. Finally, in 2007, it was renamed the Fillmore Theatre. This change was part of a bigger plan to give several theaters across the country the "Fillmore" name.

Building Design and Features

The Fillmore Detroit building is twelve stories tall. It is covered with a special kind of baked clay called terra cotta. The part of the building where the shows happen, called the auditorium, is eight stories high and stretches to the back.

The front office part of the building has beautiful decorations. These designs are in a style called Beaux-Arts Italian Renaissance. Only the ground floor was updated around 1960.

The Fillmore Detroit Today

Today, The Fillmore Detroit is a popular place for live music concerts. Many famous bands and singers perform here. It also hosts many other special events. The theater can hold about 2,900 people. About 2,084 of these seats are for reserved seating. The middle and upper levels of the theater still have their original seats.

Becoming The Fillmore Detroit

In March 2007, Live Nation, the company that runs the venue, announced a big change. The State Theatre would become the Fillmore Detroit. This was part of a plan to create more "Fillmore" venues in different cities, similar to how they have "House of Blues" locations.

They made some changes to the Detroit theater to make it feel like the famous Fillmore venue in San Francisco, California. The very first show under the new Fillmore Detroit name was a concert by Fergie on June 13, 2007.

Restoring the Historic Building

Live Nation has been slowly working to restore the beautiful Italian Renaissance style of the theater. In the 1990s, they restored the outer lobby and the round rotunda lobby. More recently, they fixed up the large columns in the main foyer and the arch around the stage.

Live Nation has also restored the curved ceiling of the three-story grand foyer. They plan to continue working on the upper parts of the auditorium in the future.

American Idol at The Fillmore

In 2015, the TV show American Idol held some of its semi-final rounds at The Fillmore Detroit. These were for the show's fourteenth season. Some episodes were filmed there and shown on TV starting February 25.

Then, on March 3 and 4, two live episodes of American Idol were broadcast from The Fillmore. These were the first live shows the series had ever done outside of Los Angeles, California.