Curio | December 11, 2025

On This Day | Scaling the Auditorium To Fit in the Purse

161 words • 1 min read

Author

Josh Wolsky

The plans Ellerbe has been working on call for, at the committee’s prior request, a building 176 x 239, made of concrete blocks, with no floor except gravel in part of the building, with a permanent-seating capacity of 7,038, with no paint on the interior, with no stage, but with heating, ventilation, lighting and plumbing put in. Finishing and equipping such a building up to snuff so that the building could be operated somewhere near the black without a heavy financial drain on the city’s general fund would cost another $100,000 or $200,000.
1952-12-11 | Ward County Independent

Why We Chose It

Inflation adjusted, the $750,000 budget for the Auditorium would translate to about $9,100,000 today. Per square foot, that building -- and that translates again to about $216 per square foot.