An 1878 Second Empire landmark on Main Street where four vaudeville actors allegedly died by their own hand
117 S. Main St., St. Charles, MO 63301
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Ghost tours of St. Charles Main Street may include this building; check local tour operators for current pricing
Access
Limited Access
Historic brick building on downtown Main Street; multi-story with no elevator known
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1878 · National Register of Historic Places (listed 1987) · St. Charles Vaudeville Theatre History · Independent Order of Odd Fellows Missouri Chapter · Second Empire Commercial Architecture
The building at 117 S. Main was put up in 1878 during a period of rapid commercial expansion in St. Charles, a city that had served as Missouri's first state capital earlier in the century. The Second Empire design — mansard roof, heavy cornices, symmetrical fenestration — was fashionable for civic and commercial buildings of the period, and the three-story structure was ambitious for a river city block.
The ground floor operated as a bank. The second floor was given over to a vaudeville theatre whose stage projected over the sidewalk into a protruding bay known as the Green Room. Above that, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows held their lodge meetings on the third floor, giving the building its enduring name.
The theatre era predates recorded sound and film in St. Charles, and the building's fortunes shifted over the following decades as vaudeville faded. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, recognizing its architectural integrity and its place in the city's nineteenth-century commercial record.
Sources
The haunting account at 117 S. Main centers on the vaudeville theatre's Green Room, the backstage area that extended over the sidewalk on the second floor. According to local tradition, four performers — two men and two women — died by suicide in that space during the building's theatre years. No corroborating newspaper archive has surfaced to confirm names or dates, but the story has circulated through St. Charles for decades.
Visitors and passersby have reported doors opening and closing without apparent cause in the upper floors of the building. A recurring report describes a figure appearing in the stage wing area around 9 p.m. and then vanishing; no structural explanation has been advanced for the sightings.
The combination of the building's documented age, its theatrical past, and the stark character of the alleged deaths has kept the story alive on Main Street ghost tours. The claims remain unverified but are consistently attributed to the theatre level rather than the bank or Odd Fellows floors.
The building is visible from the public sidewalk on historic Main Street and is included in walking tours of St. Charles's 19th-century commercial district. Interior access depends on current building use.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Springfield, MO
The building opened on October 8, 1916 as the Electric Theatre on a block that had been almost entirely destroyed by a major fire in 1913. It operated as the Fox Theatre from 1928 until 1982 and now houses the History Museum on the Square.
Washington, NC
Built around 1913 for proprietor C. A. Turnage — who incorporated the enterprise as New Theatre Inc. — the Turnage Theatre originally combined a shoe store on its ground floor with a vaudeville theater above. A separate 'talkie' theater was constructed behind the original structure in 1928. Adaptive rehabilitation in the 1990s restored the complex, and it now houses Arts of the Pamlico in a 32,000-square-foot facility with two theaters.
Poplar Bluff, MO
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