Readers OK With Kiel Opera House Becoming Peabody Opera House
Last week, the readers that voted in the poll showed their support for the Peabody name displacing the Kiel name on the old opera house.
Q: Kiel Auditorium is now the Scottrade Center on the south and the Peabody Opera House on the north. Your thoughts on renaming this building?
- The money to make the project happen is more important than retaining an old name: 92 [57.14%]
- Henry Kiel was mayor, it is disrespectful to rename the building: 17 [10.56%]
- The original name was Municipal Auditorium, the Kiel name was added later and was around long enough: 14 [8.7%]
- Other answer… 12 [7.45%]
- Renaming is fine, just not a coal company: 11 [6.83%]
- Unsure/ no opinion: 10 [6.21%]
- Mayor Henry Kiel has been dead nearly 70 years, he won’t know: 5 [3.11%]
The “Other” responses were:
- Kiel is what it was when I lived there and knew it. Kiel it ought stay.
- Maybe people will mistake it for the famous Peabody Conservatory of Music!
- seriously? who cares!
- This is money Peabody isn’t using on anti-environmental advertising.
- Naming civic spaces after corporate sponsors is icky.
- Sell the name to the highest bidder
- How about Bosley? He has done more for this town than any Mayor in STL history.
- I’m not opposed to renaming most buildings, but it should be for better rea
- Doesn’t matter; people will still call it the Kiel Opera House.
- The Kiel name is still preserved
- Changing the name every 5 years destroys “history” or at least a tradi
- As I-64 is still Hwy 40, Peabody will always be Kiel in the minds of STLers
I’m of the belief that we shouldn’t rename structures after the fact.
– Steve Patterson
Then you believe that it shouldn't have been renamed the Kiel from the Municipal Auditorium?!
To clarify, when a person is honored by having a building named, or renamed, for them post-death what does it say about that honor when it is removed. Will we next rename a Kennedy School to something like Monsanto School to help fund education?
I hope they retain those “auditorium” signs.
I'm sure they will–hopefully.
I get the need for corporate dollars, but the three problems I see are 1) the way the names, many times, end up convoluted, 2) the names just aren't great for public facilities, and 3) the names don't stick around very long:
1. Invesco Field at Mile High (Denver)
2. 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheater (Tampa)
3. TWA Dome > Edward Jones Dome; Riverport > Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
None of these places are retail spaces in a strip shopping center (where change is expected). These are places where many patrons only go a few times a year and expect some continuity. Hopefully, the Peabody will stay the Peabody for a minimum of several decades, but I could easily see another change in 5 or 10 years . . .
“And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County/Down by the Green River where Paradise lay/Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking/Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.” For this reason and so many others, it has been, and shall always remain, the Kiel Opera House.