An electrical engineer's patent fortune built Ohio State a concert hall, and the campus never even officially named it. Mershon Auditorium, at 1871 North High Street in Columbus, was dedicated on April 29, 1957 and has been operated by the adjacent Wexner Center for the Arts since 1989. The money came from Colonel Ralph D. Mershon, an 1890 electrical engineering graduate whose $7.5 million bequest funded the hall through the trustees' discretionary half of his endowment - the building known simply by his name ever since. A 1998 renovation modernized the mid-century room, trading the original 3,058 fixed seats for 2,477 with wider aisles, more legroom and expanded accessible seating, alongside new technical systems - reopening with the Verve JazzFest. The auditorium's scale and precise acoustics make it Columbus's standard theater-size stop: Wexner Center performing arts seasons, touring concerts and comedians booked by Columbus Arena Sports and Entertainment, university ceremonies and lectures share the stage. The pairing with the Wexner Center gives the hall unusual programming range - Peter Eisenman's deconstructivist landmark next door feeds experimental dance, jazz and world music into a room that also hosts mainstream national tours. The stage converts to a black-box configuration with audience and performers together on the boards, an orchestra pit seats a hundred players, and the sightlines hold from any seat on the main floor or balcony. With the giant Schottenstein Center handling arena traffic, Mershon holds the middle ground it has owned since 1957 - the room where Ohio State meets the touring arts at theater scale. The hall's guest list across seven decades reads like a cultural survey of the American century - from touring symphonies and jazz royalty to His Holiness the Dalai Lama - the reliable big room where the university puts the world in front of Columbus.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 1871 North High Street, Columbus, OH, United States, 43210

Website: https://wexarts.org/rentals/mershon-auditorium

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 2477

Opening Date: 29/04/1957

Accessible