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The Sheldon Concert Hall

The architect of the Sheldon was Louis C. Spiering, a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts.  After his European studies, Spiering returned to his native St. Louis to participate in the design of the 1904 World’s Fair.  About 1908 he joined George W. Hellmuth (1870-1955, the father of George F. Hellmuth of Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum), who had a large practice in upper-class residences.  Spiering’s best-known designs include the Soulard Library (recently Carnegie’s), the Artists’ Guild at 812 Union (now Dignity House), and the large private garden at Union and Waterman.  For the Sheldon, Spiering selected the same brick and stone neoclassical style that had been used by Mauran, Russell & Garden for the First Church of Christ, Scientist on Kingshighway, a style that expressed solemnity without being too closely associated with other religious denominations.  Spiering died in 1912 at age 37 shortly before the Sheldon was completed, but Walter Gunn, the former president of the Sheldon Arts Foundation, is convinced that his spirit is still present in the building.

Though the Sheldon has long been appreciated by the concertgoing public for its resonant musical acoustics, it was designed primarily for the spoken voice.  It was the home from 1912 to 1964 of the St. Louis Ethical Society and was built as a memorial to the society’s founder, Walter L. Sheldon, who died in 1907, and whose ashes rest in the cornerstone.  The Ethical movement originated in New York in the work of Felix Adler as a religious fellowship based on ethical humanism and independent of any particular creed, ritual or tradition.  Walter Sheldon started the St. Louis society in 1886, and today, in its Harris Armstrong-designed home at 9001 Clayton Road in Ladue, it remains the fourth oldest and one of the largest in the nation.

After the Ethical Society gave up the Sheldon in 1974, the building faced some uncertain years.  The Sheldon Arts Foundation purchased it in 1991 to preserve and operate it as an independent cultural institution.  The Sheldon Annex, which was completed in 1998 to the designs of Raymond E. Maritz Jr., gives the auditorium and the ballroom above it modern standards of accessibility and adds a suite of art galleries and a large reception room called the Spiering Room.

In 2001 St. Louis artist Rodney Winfield designed and Emil Frei Associates fabricated new stained glass windows for the east wall of the auditorium, incorporating faceted chunks of glass and gold insets to create a glittering pattern in evening light as well as during the day.  The Sheldon is one of the institutions cooperating in Grand Center, Inc., the development corporation set up to promote this Midtown neighborhood as the performing arts center of St. Louis.

After the Chamber Chorus performed here on November 19, 1982 under the direction of Allen Carl Larson, the Music Director at that time, the group did not return to the Sheldon until June 1, 1997 when the women’s voices accompanied by Martha Shaffer sang a program of romantic lieder.  The Chorus also performed here on November 9, 1997 in a program entitled “Politically Correct,” and on November 14, 1999 in its program “Going For The Jocular.”