The fifth in a line of major indoor venues built in Sioux City, it was designed by Knute E. Westerlind in 1938 and finally completed after many delays in 1950.

The fourth Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1830 forced them to leave Iowa, and forty years later the new White residents built the first in a series of five major indoor venues for Sioux City: the Academy of Music of 1870, the Peavey Grand Opera House of 1888, the Old Municipal Auditorium of 1909, this one completed in 1950, and Gateway Arena of 2003.

As the city's only large hall, it held high school graduations, theatrical performances, concerts, and speeches, including at least two by Susan B. Anthony speaking on behalf of women's suffrage.

[5] The Peavey Grand Opera House was built in 1888, and "this elegant facility replaced the Academy of Music as the city's cultural center".

Architects James W. Martin and Oscar Cobb joined forces to design the resulting Romanesque revival building with a mansard roof, located on the northwest corner of Fourth and Jones Streets.

Finally issuing the bonds in April 1941, the basement was dug and pilings driven before World War II shortages caused the project to grind to a halt in 1943.

[14][15] In 2001, the Sioux City Symphony moved to the newly restored Orpheum Theater, and in 2003 the venue was replaced for large concerts and sporting events by Gateway Arena.

Among other attractions, the center offers volleyball and basketball courts, a batting cage, and a climbing wall; and hosts weddings, receptions, and other events.

In keeping with Moderne style, Westerlind employed smooth brick walls, rounded corners, glass block windows, patterns of horizontal lines, and openings that appear "cut into the building".

However, Westerlind, a protege of prominent Prairie School architect William L. Steele, brought a Beaux-Arts approach to determining its massing, symmetry, proportions, and details.