For those of you who were wondering whatever happened to the vintage “Powell” sign going up on the hall, which I reported a while ago, the concerns of officialdom have held me back from delivering the news. Of course, if you’ve driven Grand Ave. over the last few weeks, or taken a peek from one of the cross streets -- Delmar or Lindell or Washington, for example – you’ve already gotten an eyeful of our great and graceful new landmark, designed to appear as the old St. Louis Theatre sign once did, back when this place was a movie palace 40 years ago.
Today the sign was made official, with a ceremony and the lighting of all the hundreds of bulbs. Voila!
According to the local paper of record: “The sign was funded by gifts totaling $176,500 to Grand Center Inc. from the Taylor family of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and the Centene Charitable Foundation.” A Grand Center Inc. grant also has given the old hall new carpeting and an interior paint job as well, which all of you folks returning for concerts this season are going to find to be a big improvement, and all of you new folks are going to find mighty spiffy.
The new sign looks terrific. It’s a big sucker. 35 footer.
Now anybody who is driving up or down Grand wondering where Powell Symphony Hall is: Ta da!
Here are pictures I took back when the sign was going up.
