Shreveport Municipal Auditorium

Shreveport's Municipal Memorial Auditorium was built between 1926 and 1929 as a memorial to the servicemen of World War I, and the brick-and-terra-cotta front is lettered with that dedication. Samuel G. Wiener Sr. and Seymour Van Os designed it in Art Deco for the firm Jones, Roessle, Olschner and Wiener, and the Ashton Glassell Company built it.

From April 1948 to 1960, Saturday nights belonged to the Louisiana Hayride, a barn dance carried by KWKH, a 50,000-watt station, to listeners from Chicago to Los Angeles. Live audiences averaged around 3,300. Hank Williams was the first of many Hayride artists who went on to the Grand Ole Opry. On October 16, 1954, 19-year-old Elvis Presley first stepped onto this stage; the Opry had already turned him down, and he stayed on the Hayride for about a year and a half. Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, Slim Whitman and Johnny Horton were also on the bill, and the show faded after Horton died in a car crash in 1960.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2008, on the strength of the Hayride. It holds a 3,200-seat auditorium and the Stage of Stars Museum, and a $4.7 million renovation was finished in 2013. The address is 705 Elvis Presley Avenue, formerly Grand Avenue; call 318-841-4000 for tours and event tickets.