The Palladium is a disused and endangered historic building in the Grand Center arts district of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. It is especially noted as the site of the Plantation Club, a 1940s and early 1950s

dance club Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

where famous African-American musicians performed. It was in some ways St. Louis's equivalent to Harlem's famous Cotton Club and was almost certainly modeled after it. The building opened in 1914 as the Palladium Roller Skating Rink, although from its early days it also served as a

ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic man ...

. In 1940 the Plantation Club night club, which had existed since 1931 on the west end of the block, moved into the building and replaced the roller rink. Like the Cotton Club, the Plantation was owned by a gangster, Tony Scarpelli. And like the Cotton Club, it offered entertainment by African-Americans to a white-only audience. Performers included Jimmie Lunceford, Nat King Cole,

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

, Benny Carter, the

Mills Brothers The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed the Four Mills Brothers, and originally known as the Four Kings of Harmony, were an American jazz and traditional pop vocal quartet who made more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies a ...

, the

Fletcher Henderson James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson (December 18, 1897 – December 29, 1952) was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musi ...

Orchestra, the

Noble Sissle Noble Lee Sissle (July 10, 1889 – December 17, 1975) was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer, and playwright, best known for the Broadway musical ''Shuffle Along'' (1921), and its hit song "I'm Just Wild About Harry". Ea ...

Orchestra, the

Ink Spots The Ink Spots were an American pop vocal group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style presaged the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely a ...

, and

Billy Eckstine William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously ...

’s band with musicians

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

, Lucky Thompson,

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

and musical director

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

and vocalists

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...

and

Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer. Nicknamed "Sassy" and "Jazz royalty, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine ...

. Business boomed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

; the club installed air conditioning and offered shows at 11:00 pm, 1:00 am, and 3:00 am. The house band was the

Jeter-Pillars Orchestra Jeter-Pillars Orchestra was an American jazz troupe, led by altoist James Jeter and tenor-saxophonist Hayes Pillars. Career Jeter and Pillars were previously members of Alphonso Trent's big band. After that outfit split in 1933 they formed the g ...

, which featured

Sweets Edison Harry "Sweets" Edison (October 10, 1915 – July 27, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. His most important contribution was as a Hollywood studio musician, whose muted trumpet can be heard back ...

and

Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke ...

, and later Jimmy Blanton and Charlie Christian, and also

Jimmy Forrest James, Jim or Jimmy Forrest may refer to: Sports * James Forrest (rugby union) (born 1907), Scotland international rugby union player * James Forrest (baseball) (1897–1977), American baseball player * James Forrest (basketball) (born 1972), Ame ...

. The club declined after the early 1950s. Later the building hosted various

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

s. It was home to thrift shops – Veteran's Village from 1963 to 2006, then HHV Thrift Plus until 2010, since when it has been vacant. The John Cochran

Veteran's Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and ...

Hospital, which is looking to expand, was in talks in the mid 2010s with the owners to purchase and raze the building. As of 2020, there was still no announced decision whether the hospital would expand south (which would imply demotion of the Palladium) or north. The

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...

consequently placed the Palladium (which is not on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

) on its 2014 list of most endangered historic places. In January of 2020 part of the roof collapsed, leaving part of the upper floor open to the elements.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/grand-center-s-historic-palladium-put-on-national-most-endangered/article_e242992c-830e-5a77-a2a8-55f8911873c3.html , title=Grand Center's historic Palladium put on national 'most-endangered' list , author=Tim Bryant , date=June 24, 2014 , publisher=St. Louis Post-Dispatch , accessdate=July 24, 2015 {{cite web , url=http://www.va.gov/directory/guide/facility.asp?id=128 , title=VA St. Louis Health Care System - John Cochran Division , work=VA Directory , publisher=United States Department of Veteran's Affairs , accessdate=July 26, 2015 , quote=The John Cochran Division, named after the late Missouri congressman... {{cite web , url=http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/2013/07/john-cochran-veterans-hospital-wants-to-expand-south-into-grand-center-raze-historic-palladium-music-hall/ , title=John Cochran Veterans Hospital Wants To Expand South Into Grand Center, Raze Historic Palladium Music Hall , author=Steve Patterson , date=July 29, 2013 , work=Urban Review STL , accessdate=July 26, 2015 {{cite web , url=http://preservationresearch.com/2011/12/the-palladium-made-st-louis-music-history-what-will-we-make-of-the-palladium/ , title=The Palladium Made St. Louis Music History; What Will We Make of the Palladium? , author1=Kevin Belford , author2=Christian Frommelt , author3=Michael R. Allen , date=December 15, 2011 , publisher=Preservation Research Office , accessdate=July 26, 2015 {{cite web , url=http://www.stlmusicyesterdays.com/Club%20Plantation.htm , title=Club Plantation , publisher=Metro St. Louis Live Music Historical Society , accessdate=July 4, 2016 {{cite web , date=January 20, 2020 , author=Chris Naffziger , url=http://stlouispatina.com/roof-collapse-at-the-old-palladium/ , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128202045/http://stlouispatina.com/roof-collapse-at-the-old-palladium/ , archive-date=August 4, 2020 , title=Roof Collapse at the Old Palladium , work=St Louis Patina , accessdate=October 31, 2021 1914 establishments in Missouri Commercial buildings completed in 1914 Buildings and structures in St. Louis Culture of St. Louis African-American cultural history Music venues in St. Louis National Trust for Historic Preservation