A modernist master built a Greek theatre for a seminary; a university inherited it. Shelton Auditorium at 1000 West 42nd Street opened in 1966 as the centrepiece of the Christian Theological Seminary campus, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes - the architect of the Dallas Museum of Art and Walker Art Center - in the crisp mid-century style critics called pre-Gothic. The hall honours Orman Shelton, the seminary's first president, and its steeply raked, nearly 400-seat bowl wraps the stage in the manner of a classical Greek theatre, with acoustics that have made it a favourite of unamplified performers for six decades. Theatre history runs deep in the room: the Edyvean Repertory Theatre made it home for thirty years until 1996, giving Indianapolis a professional company in a seminary building - an unusual arrangement that shaped the city's stage culture. Butler University bought the CTS campus in 2018, folding the auditorium into the Butler Arts and Events Center alongside Clowes Memorial Hall, the Schrott Center and Hinkle Fieldhouse - a seven-venue operation drawing over 300,000 visitors a year. A renovation refreshed seating comfort while preserving the Barnes aesthetic, and the current calendar leans intimate: dance recitals, rising comedians, podcast tapings, lectures and chamber performances suited to the room's scale. The South Campus setting keeps logistics simple - surface parking off 42nd Street and Haughey Avenue at the door - five minutes from the main Butler campus and ten from downtown Indianapolis. Barnes's larger campus for the seminary - limestone volumes stepped down the wooded site above the White River valley - is considered one of his finest ensembles, and the auditorium's place within it gives Indianapolis audiences a rare chance to watch performances inside a nationally significant piece of mid-century architecture.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 1000 West 42nd Street, Indianapolis, IN, United States, 46208

Website: https://www.butlerartscenter.org/venues/shelton-auditorium/

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 400

Opening Date: 01/01/1966

Accessible