A group of businessmen led by attorney Guy Golterman assembled $450,000 in private funding, and built the Coliseum at Washington and Jefferson Avenues.
[1] It replaced the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall as the city's main convention and big entertainment center.
The building accommodated the 1916 Democratic nominating convention, wrestling and boxing matches, trade shows, and musical extravaganzas.
Enrico Caruso performed in the Coliseum twice: first with the Metropolitan Opera Company in April 1910 and again in May 1919, giving a concert for Liberty Loans.
Lack of parking, the emergence of neighborhood swimming pools, and Kiel Auditorium, which opened in 1934, effectively ended the usefulness of St. Louis Coliseum.