For 65 years, a barrel-roofed hall on Oakland Avenue was the loudest room in St. Louis sports. The St. Louis Arena opened on September 23, 1929, immediately claiming its place as the second-largest indoor entertainment center in the country, trailing only Madison Square Garden in New York. Everyone just called it ‘The Barn’ — a nickname that stuck for reasons rooted less in hockey and more in the building’s original purpose.
This guide covers the arena’s full story: why it earned the barn nickname, how it became the beloved home of the St. Louis Blues and briefly the neon-bright Checkerdome, which other pro teams and touring acts passed through its doors, how big it actually got at its seating peak, and exactly what occupies the site today.
Quick Answer
The St. Louis Arena, nicknamed ‘The Barn,’ was a 1929 indoor arena at 5700 Oakland Avenue that served as the primary home of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues from 1967 until 1994. Renamed the Checkerdome from 1977 to 1983 under Ralston Purina ownership, it hosted three straight Stanley Cup Finals (1968-1970). The Blues left for the new Kiel Center in 1994, the building sat vacant for nearly five years, and it was demolished by controlled implosion on February 27, 1999. The site is now part of The Highlands, a mixed-use development of apartments, a hotel, offices, and restaurants near Forest Park.
Built for Cattle Shows, Not Hockey: How ‘The Barn’ Got Its Name
Construction began in 1927 under architects Gustel R. Kiewitt and Herman M. Sohrmann, with the Boaz-Kiel Construction Company completing the $1.5 million structure in roughly two years. At 476 feet long and 276 feet wide, the arena used a lamella roof — an interlocking lattice of short steel rafters supported by 20 cantilever trusses — that spanned the entire building without a single interior column. It was considered a structural marvel in 1929 and gave every seat, whether at a hockey game or a livestock show, a clear sightline.
The ‘Barn’ nickname didn’t actually come from hockey. The building’s first major event was the National Dairy Show, and for roughly its first 15 years the arena kept a dirt floor to host livestock exhibitions, horse shows, and agricultural expos alongside boxing and the circus. That rustic, straw-and-sawdust character gave the building its lasting nickname — one St. Louisans kept using long after the dirt floor was gone and the Blues had moved in.
The Blues, Three Stanley Cup Finals, and the Checkerdome Years
When the NHL doubled in size for the 1967-68 season, the expansion St. Louis Blues made the Arena their permanent home, playing their first game there on October 11, 1967, a 2-2 tie with the Minnesota North Stars. The young team overachieved immediately, reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in each of its first three seasons — 1968, 1969, and 1970 — all played in front of raucous Barn crowds. The Blues were swept each time, twice by the Montreal Canadiens and once by the Boston Bruins, but the run cemented the arena’s reputation as one of the loudest buildings in the league.
In 1977, Ralston Purina bought both the Blues and the arena and renamed it the Checkerdome after the company’s red-and-white checkerboard logo, repainting the roof to match. The name lasted until 1983, when new owner Harry Ornest dropped the Ralston branding and restored the original St. Louis Arena name — the one most fans had kept using all along. The Blues played their final game there on April 24, 1994, a loss to the Dallas Stars, before moving downtown to Kiel Center.
Beyond the Blues: Spirits, Steamers, and a Packed Events Calendar
The Blues weren’t the only pro team to call the Arena home. Before the NHL arrived, the St. Louis Flyers played minor-league hockey there from 1929 to 1953, followed briefly by the NHL’s own St. Louis Eagles in 1934-35. The ABA’s Spirits of St. Louis played there for the league’s final two seasons, 1974-75 and 1975-76, fielding future NBA stars Moses Malone and Maurice Lucas — with a young Bob Costas calling games on KMOX radio — before the franchise folded in the 1976 ABA-NBA merger.
The St. Louis Steamers indoor soccer club, playing in the Major Indoor Soccer League from 1979 to 1988, became one of the building’s biggest draws, regularly outdrawing the Blues at the gate during the early 1980s. The building’s size and column-free floor also made it a magnet for major touring acts and events: the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four in 1973 and 1978, the NCAA Frozen Four in 1975, NHL All-Star Games in 1970 and 1988, plus concerts from Led Zeppelin (April 15, 1977) and Michael Jackson (March 12, 1988), decades of circuses, political conventions, and boxing cards.
How Big Was the St. Louis Arena? Seating Capacity Over Time
The arena opened in 1929 with roughly 14,200 seats. As the Blues’ popularity grew, ownership renovated repeatedly, pushing hockey capacity up over the decades before settling at 17,188 for its final years from the late 1980s through 1994 — the figure most commonly cited as its ‘final capacity.’ For non-hockey configurations like ABA basketball, indoor soccer, and concerts, the building was frequently billed as an 18,000-seat venue.
The Long Vacancy, Demolition, and What’s There Today
The Blues’ 1994 move downtown came with a catch: as part of the financing deal that funded Kiel Center, the Arena was barred from competing for events, even as the city remained on the hook for its insurance. With no revenue coming in, the building sat empty for nearly five years while pressure mounted to either repurpose or demolish it. On February 27, 1999, the St. Louis Arena came down in a controlled implosion, ending 70 years of history on the site.
Today, 5700 Oakland Avenue sits within The Highlands, a mixed-use campus near Forest Park that also covers the former site of the old Forest Park Highlands amusement park. The development includes several apartment buildings with loft-style units, a Hampton Inn & Suites hotel, restaurants and a coffee shop, a medical office building, a yoga studio, offices for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals of Greater St. Louis, and KSDK-TV’s studios and newsroom. A grass plaza and historical signage mark the approximate footprint where the arena floor once stood — the only visible trace of The Barn left on the property.
St. Louis Arena (The Barn) FAQs
Why was the St. Louis Arena nicknamed ‘The Barn’?
The nickname predates hockey. The building’s first major event was the 1929 National Dairy Show, and it kept a dirt floor for about 15 years to host livestock shows, horse exhibitions, and agricultural expos, giving it a rustic, barn-like character that outlasted the dirt floor itself.
Is the Checkerdome the same building as the St. Louis Arena?
Yes. Ralston Purina bought the Blues and the arena in 1977 and renamed the building the Checkerdome after its corporate logo. New ownership dropped the name in 1983 and restored the original St. Louis Arena name, which it kept until demolition in 1999.
How many people did the St. Louis Arena hold?
It opened in 1929 with about 14,200 seats and was expanded over the decades, settling at a final hockey capacity of 17,188 from the late 1980s through 1994. Non-hockey events like concerts and indoor soccer were often billed at up to 18,000.
When was the St. Louis Arena demolished?
It was brought down in a controlled implosion on February 27, 1999, nearly five years after the Blues played their last game there in 1994.
What replaced the St. Louis Arena?
The site at 5700 Oakland Avenue is now part of The Highlands, a mixed-use development near Forest Park with apartment buildings, a Hampton Inn & Suites hotel, restaurants, a medical office building, and KSDK-TV’s studios. A grass plaza with historical signage marks where the arena stood.
What other teams played at the St. Louis Arena besides the Blues?
The minor-league St. Louis Flyers (1929-1953), the NHL’s short-lived St. Louis Eagles (1934-35), the ABA’s Spirits of St. Louis (1974-76), and the St. Louis Steamers of the Major Indoor Soccer League (1979-1988) all called the arena home.
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