Staub, who was born in Glarus, Switzerland, emigrated to the United States with the trade of tailor in 1854, initially settling in New Jersey.

There he was primarily active as serial entrepreneur, opening a tailor shop and investing his profits in real estate.

Concluding he would benefit from a more mountainous environment, Staub decided to move to East Tennessee, often advertised during this period as the "Switzerland of America."

[4] During the Civil War, Staub's house on the periphery of Knoxville was burned by the Union Army to prevent Confederate soldiers from using it for shelter.

[4] During the years following the Civil War, Knoxville gained a reputation for cultural backwardness that many of the city's residents found embarrassing.

The theater opened on October 2, 1872, with a dedication by former congressman Thomas A. R. Nelson and a performance of Sheridan Knowles's William Tell by the Knoxville Histrionic Society.

[7] In the early 1900s, Staub's began to host vaudeville acts and wrestling matches, reflecting Knoxville's influx of working class migrants.

[6] During the late 1860s, Staub began working with a group called the Tennessee Clonisation Gesellschaft, which sought to establish colonies of Swiss immigrants atop the Cumberland Plateau west of Knoxville.

Staub purchased a large tract of land along a remote section of the Plateau in Grundy County in 1869 that provided the core of the Swiss colony of Gruetli (now Gruetli-Laager).