"St. Louis Exposition Building---In the early eighties this building was one of the most popular resorts in the city. Every fall the St. Louis Exposition was held here, and the Music Hall which was a part of the structure was in use for concerts, lectures and other entertainment on occasion. The Public Library now occupies this site. (By courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society.)"
"Olive and Fourteenth, looking east on Olive. A Turners' parade is passing St. Louis Exposition Hall which was 1884's counterpart of Kiel Auditorium. In 1883, a Mercantile Club meeting decided to erect an exposition building, and the $1,000,000 edifice was built in 1883-84 on the 6-acre Missouri Park bounded by Olive, St. Charles, Thirteenth and Fourteenth (now the Public Library, Locust stret, and Lucas Sunken Garden). The music hall, in the center of the building, had 3507 seats and could crowd in 2000 standees. Annual exhibitions of machinery and manufactures were held here each fall in conjunction with the old Fair. Music Hall patrons were treated to the strains of Gilmore's 65-piece band until 1893 when Col. Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore died here during the festival and was succeeded by John Phillip Sousa's band. The hall was a meeting place for conventions and public gatherings of all kinds until it was razed in 1907. This picture dates from about Spanish-American War times."
"The Grand Music Hall of the Exposition Building, Thirteenth and Olive, was where Col. Patrick Gilmore's 100-piece band played to capacity crowds in the early 1890s. Hall had 3507 numbered seats."
