The Grand Opera House was the name of two theatres located in St. Louis, Missouri on the same property on the south side of Market Street between Broadway and Sixth Streets.

Venue: Grand Opera House (St. Louis)
Town: Saint Louis, US

The Grand Opera House was the name of two theatres located in St. Louis, Missouri on the same property on the south side of Market Street between Broadway and Sixth Streets. The first theatre, originally known as the Varieties Theatre, opened in 1852 and went by several different names, including the Grand Opera House, during its thirty-two year existence. After it was destroyed by fire in November 1884, a second theatre, known from its inauguration as the Grand Opera House, was built on the site of the first theatre and opened just 10 months after the destruction of the first theatre in September 1885. In 1935 the second Grand Opera House was renamed the Grand Theatre when it became part of a chain of a burlesque circuit of theaters. It operated under that name into the early 1960s. In 1963 the theatre was demolished to make room for Busch Memorial Stadium. The first Grand Opera House opened as the Varieties Theatre (also known as Field's Varieties) in May 1852 under the management of Joseph M. Field. It was designed after the Salle Barthélemy; a theatre located on the Rue Neuve-Saint-Nicolas in Paris, France that had opened previously in June 1851. The inaugural performance at the Varieties Theatre occurred on May 10, 1852, with a double bill of Edward W. Shands' You Can't Open and the comedy Where There's a Will; the latter starring Field and his wife, the actress Eliza Riddle Field. Field's tenure as manager lasted only one season, and his last performance as manager and actor at the Varieties Theatre occurred on June 13, 1852. The theatre remained closed until it was taken over by the St. Louis journalist Henry Boernstein who utilized the theatre for performances of the Philodramatic Society, a dramatic group specializing in German language theatre, from 1856 through 1859. When the theatre was purchased by James Buchanan Eads in 1858 the theatre was renamed the St. Louis Opera House (sometimes known by its German translation St. Louis Opernhaus). It continued t