Olive Theater

3560 Olive Street,
St. Louis, MO 63103

Unfavorite No one has favorited this theater yet

Additional Info

Nearby Theaters

Olive Theater

This theater appears on the 1909 Sanborn, located in one of the storefronts of a large 3 story brick Victorian hotel building, which was built in 1885.

This theater does not appear to be listed in the 1914-15 AMPD. The building itself seems to have been demolished around 1930, and replaced by an attractive 2 story tile-fronted set of stores. That structure in turn has been demolished, and this part of the block is a grassy lot.

Contributed by Seth Gaines

Recent comments (view all 3 comments)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 21, 2026 at 9:16 pm

Gould’s 1909 St. Louis Directory lists under the heading “Amusement Companies” 3560 Olive Street as the location of The Olive (Olive The, since it’s alphabetical by last name) with no indication of what sort of amusement it might provide, though if the same year’s Sanborn map says it was movies, it was probably movies. Most of the outfits listed under the category by Gould’s are not designated as theaters, but are often just names, such as “Propotnick Otto” at 1526 S. Broadway, and “Schmitt Christ” at 4500 S. Compton Av. Puzzling.

The Grand Avenue Hotel was built in 1885. In 1909, part of it was slated to be demolished to make way for the new Princess Theatre (listed at CT as Loews Mid-City Theatre.) The Princess, originally a vaudeville house, opened in 1910, but I don’t think the part of the hotel building along Olive Street had been razed for it, or at least not all of it was razed. Early photos of the Princess show part of the old hotel building still standing next door at the Olive street corner.

SethG
SethG on October 21, 2026 at 9:34 pm

Thanks for that reasearch! We’ll call it the Olive for now.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 21, 2026 at 11:36 pm

This might have been a precursor to the Olive Theatre at 4023 Olive Street, opened in 1911, and listed at CT as the Congress Theatre.

You must login before making a comment.

New Comment

Subscribe Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.