HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
Sioux Falls' oldest surviving theater, a 1913 vaudeville house still hosting shows and its own resident ghost, Larry
315 N Phillips Ave, Sioux Falls, SD 57104
Research updated October 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticket prices vary by touring show, concert, or community production; the venue also books privately for weddings and conferences
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic multi-level theater with balcony seating; ADA accommodations available, contact venue in advance
Equipment
No Photos
Please silence and store all electronic devices during performances.
Est. 1913 · National Register of Historic Places (1983) · Sioux Falls' Oldest Surviving Theater · Former Vaudeville House · 1994 Anne Zabel Actor's Studio Addition
The Orpheum Theatre opened October 2, 1913, at 315 North Phillips Avenue in downtown Sioux Falls, built by the Solari brothers as a vaudeville house seating roughly 900 to 1,000 patrons. Opening-night tickets sold for five dollars, an extravagant price for 1913. Ownership changed repeatedly in the decades that followed: the Solaris sold to the Finkelstein and Ruben theater chain in 1919, and Minnesota Amusement Company acquired it in 1927.
In 1954, the nonprofit Sioux Falls Community Playhouse bought and renovated the building, running it as the city's community theater for nearly fifty years and adding a further renovation by Spitznagel Partners in 1975. In 1994 the city purchased the neighboring King of Clubs, a 1949 bar and dance hall, leased it to the Playhouse, and connected the two buildings the following year as the Anne Zabel Actor's Studio. The Orpheum was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 23, 1983, recognized as Sioux Falls' oldest surviving theater.
The City of Sioux Falls purchased the complex in 2003. Since July 1, 2019, Washington Pavilion Management has run the venue, booking it for touring shows, concerts, dance recitals, weddings, and conferences alongside resident groups including the Sioux Falls Municipal Band and Sioux Empire Community Theatre.
Sources
Staff and performers have nicknamed the theater's resident ghost Larry, a presence first noticed by cast and crew around 1959 or 1960. Regional accounts describe a radio personality performing in a community production who looked up into the empty balcony mid-line and saw a growing blue light with a male figure inside it; he fled the building, and staff found the newly wired fusing blown out the next morning. In 1972, a technical director reported a small tin photograph of a bearded man appearing on the stage floor behind him with no one else present; he set it on the light board, and it disappeared soon after.
Larry's identity has no settled answer. Tellings variously describe a construction worker who died putting up the building, a theater manager killed in a fight on the balcony, an actor who took his own life after losing a role, or a janitor struck by a falling stage sandbag in the 1970s. None of these is backed by a documented death record. During a 1990s run of 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,' a speaker reportedly fell from the rigging and grazed a performer's cheek, an incident some on the crew attributed to Larry.
Notable Entities
Catch a touring production, concert, or community-theater performance in the 1913 vaudeville house built by the Solari brothers, now managed by Washington Pavilion Management alongside resident groups like the Sioux Falls Municipal Band and Sioux Empire Community Theatre.
View the historic Phillips Avenue facade of Sioux Falls' oldest surviving theater from the sidewalk.
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Birmingham, AL
The Lyric Theatre opened in January 1914 as a B.F. Keith vaudeville house in downtown Birmingham. Designed specifically for vaudeville acoustics, it seated approximately 1,500 patrons and was notable as one of the first Southern theaters to admit Black and white audiences to the same performance — though with the segregated seating typical of the era. The theater closed in the late 20th century and underwent an extensive restoration that culminated in its January 2016 reopening as a live-performance venue, operated by Birmingham Landmarks, Inc.
Charleston, WV
The Capitol Plaza Theatre opened on Summers Street in 1912 as a vaudeville house designed by architect P. Norwood Higgins. After a 1922 fire and full rebuild for film, it operated as a movie theater until 1981. Restored in 1985, donated to West Virginia State College in 1991, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.