It was designed by architects Carl Boller and Brother in association with Hickenlively and Mark of Springfield in a French-influenced neoclassical style.

The theater is unusual in its use of wood for nearly all structural framing, in contrast with the steel and cast iron more usually employed in its time.

[2] The theater's street facade employs Missouri limestone piers with terra cotta cornices, cartouches, quoins and parapets.

Heavy clear-span beams replaced columns supporting the balconies, and the Jim Crow-era ticket booth for "coloreds" and its separate entrance were removed.

[2] From March 17–September 22, 1961, NBC-TV carried a live country music variety program from the theater, Five Star Jubilee, on Friday nights; the first network color television series to originate outside of New York City or Hollywood.