The Landers Theatre

The Landers was the work of three men whose business interests helped shape downtown Springfield in the early twentieth century: John Landers, Douglas John “D.J.” Landers, and Robert Wilson “R.W.” Stewart.

John Landers built his fortune in the lumber industry, first in Wisconsin and later in Arkansas and Missouri. By the time The Landers was constructed, he was one of the wealthiest men in the state and had invested heavily in Springfield real estate and civic development.

His son, Douglas, was the first of the Landers family to make Springfield his permanent home. He expanded the family’s local interests through lumber, banking, transportation, and real estate, and became known as a respected and energetic businessman throughout the community.

Their business partner, Robert W. Stewart, brought a different background to the project. Stewart had spent decades in the music business and became known across the Midwest as “The Music King.” After selling his piano business, he invested extensively in Springfield property and became a neighbor and business associate of the Landers family.

The three men purchased the property at 311 East Walnut Street in 1906. At the time, they had not yet decided to build a theatre there.

The Landers was designed by brothers Carl and Robert Boller, two of the most prolific theatre designers of the early twentieth century.

Neither brother began with traditional architectural training. Their knowledge came from years spent around performance spaces. Carl worked as a scenic painter with a vaudeville troupe before turning to theatre design, while Robert joined his brother’s Kansas City office as a draftsman and apprentice.

They understood theatres from the inside out.

By the time The Landers was commissioned in 1909, the brothers were already designing theatres throughout the Midwest and West. Their work grew rapidly during the movie-palace boom of the 1920s, and together they would eventually design or remodel nearly 300 theatres.

The Landers occupies an interesting place in their career. Its design is more ornate than some of their earliest theatres but predates the grand movie palaces for which the Bollers would later become famous. The building combines practical stage design with increasingly elaborate architectural ornament—a preview of what was still to come.

Look closely around The Landers auditorium and you will find dozens of faces looking back.

These decorative faces are known as mascarons, an architectural tradition with roots in ancient Greek and Roman imagery and later European decorative design.

The Landers contains 32 mascarons, many of them incorporated directly into the lighting fixtures of the auditorium. That use is particularly unusual. Their open mouths hold lights, turning ornament into function.

The figures combine influences from mythology, theatre, and nature. Some resemble satyrs or the god Pan. Others incorporate leaves and forms associated with the “Green Man” tradition. Still others recall the familiar masks of comedy and tragedy.

They are easy to miss during a performance. Once you know they are there, however, they are difficult not to notice.

One of the most striking features of The Landers auditorium is the ornate proscenium arch surrounding the stage.

The arch serves as both an architectural frame and a theatrical one, separating the audience from the world beyond the curtain.

Its decoration draws heavily from Renaissance and classical design. Above the stage sits a crown, framing a cartouche bearing the letter “L” for Landers. Sculpted putti—decorative figures in the form of young children—flank the design alongside gilded foliage and other ornamental plasterwork.

According to Landers lore, a decorative instrument originally held by one putto was damaged during an earlier cleaning or repair. The object now in its hands is said to be a much simpler replacement.

When The Landers opened in 1909, the building contained much more than a theatre.

Its Walnut Street storefronts had separate addresses and housed a succession of businesses. One side was home to Fink’s Theatre Pharmacy, where patrons could buy candy, ice cream, remedies, and drinks from a soda fountain. The opposite storefront housed businesses including a men’s clothing store, a café, and later a beauty salon.

Offices were rented on the upper floors to real estate firms, tailors, insurance companies, detectives, chiropractors, and even the newly created Springfield Court of Appeals. Apartments throughout the building housed staff, local residents, and visiting performers.

Today, the entire building is used by Springfield Little Theatre for performance, rehearsal, offices, classrooms, production support, and storage.

Few names were bigger in American theatre during the early twentieth century than George M. Cohan, writer, composer, producer, and performer.

Cohan became one of the defining figures of American musical theatre, and The Landers welcomed him to its stage several times during the height of his fame.

He first appeared at The Landers in 1909 with THE YANKEE PRINCE, performing alongside members of his celebrated theatrical family. He returned with THE TALK OF NEW YORK in 1910 and GET RICH QUICK WALLINGFORD in 1911. Years later, after The Landers had become The Landers-Orpheum, Cohan returned again with SO THIS IS LONDON in 1924.

For Springfield audiences, these appearances were a direct connection to Broadway and the national touring circuit.

Before becoming one of the most famous faces of silent film, Lon Chaney was a touring stage performer.

In 1909, at just 26 years old, Chaney appeared at The Landers as part of the ensemble of THE ROYAL CHEF. The production came to Springfield during what would be one of his final stage tours.

Within a year, Chaney moved to Los Angeles and began working in motion pictures.

He would eventually become known around the world for his transformative performances and elaborate character makeup in films including The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera.

In 1911, one of the largest touring productions in America arrived in Springfield.

BEN-HUR was already famous for its scale, spectacle, and astonishing stagecraft. The production traveled with hundreds of cast and crew members, elaborate scenery, costumes, specialized machinery, and live animals.

The Springfield engagement required approximately a dozen railroad cars to transport the company and its equipment. Four horses and two camels appeared as part of the production.

The Landers stage had to be modified to accommodate the show’s most famous sequence: an onstage chariot race performed with real horses running on specially designed treadmills while moving scenery created the illusion of speed.

The production was so large that people gathered at the train yard simply to watch it unload.

Local businesses joined in the excitement. Railroads offered special fares. Merchants promoted BEN-HUR sales. Hotels filled with performers, crew, and visitors arriving from across the region.

The full story of how BEN-HUR transformed The Landers stage—and how that celebrated chariot race actually worked—is told in THE LANDERS: BIOGRAPHY OF A THEATER.

The Landers has welcomed far more than plays and musicals. Its early decades brought an extraordinary range of entertainers, musicians, speakers, public figures, and touring attractions to Springfield.

Among those associated with The Landers were John Philip Sousa and his band, one of the most celebrated musical ensembles in the country; Victor Herbert, composer and conductor whose work helped shape American musical theatre; Banda Rossa, the internationally known Italian concert band led by Eugenio Sorrentino; Olga Nethersole, the British actress and theatre producer whose career had already become internationally famous—and controversial—before she appeared at The Landers in 1911; and Vice President James S. Sherman, who addressed a packed Landers audience during a political visit to Springfield in 1910.

The stage also hosted lectures, political rallies, civic gatherings, graduations, community programs, and events that had little to do with traditional theatre.

In 1916, for example, women were invited to The Landers for a weeklong cooking school. Mrs. Bertha Wilcock prepared complete meals onstage while teaching the audience about recipes, ingredients, and modern household products.

Before radio, television, and streaming, vaudeville was mass entertainment.

A typical vaudeville program might include singers, comedians, dancers, musicians, acrobats, trained animals, ventriloquists, novelty performers, and short theatrical sketches—all on the same bill.

The programs could last for hours, and audiences did not necessarily stay for the entire performance. New acts rotated frequently, giving patrons a reason to return week after week.

By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, networks of theatres had formed across the country, allowing performers to travel from city to city along established booking circuits.

The Landers joined that world in the 1910s. By 1912, its programming had expanded beyond the “legitimate” plays and musicals originally required by its management contract to include vaudeville, variety acts, and motion pictures.

Vaudeville helped make live entertainment more accessible, more varied, and more connected to the emerging culture of celebrity.

Following the devastating fire of December 1920, The Landers underwent a major refurbishment, which is the look that it holds today.

When the theatre formally reopened on May 29, 1921, it did so with a new interior, new management, and a new name: The Landers-Orpheum.

Manager Ensley Barbour oversaw the theatre during this period. Under his leadership, The Landers continued to present touring stage productions while embracing vaudeville, variety entertainment, shortened musical shows, and increasingly frequent motion pictures.

The Orpheum years represented a transitional moment for American entertainment.

Visitors approaching The Landers from the north may notice a large painted sign on the brick exterior: LANDERS ORPHEUM THEATRE.

It is a surviving reminder of the building’s vaudeville era.

The sign reflects the period after the 1920 fire when The Landers reopened as The Landers-Orpheum and embraced a broader entertainment schedule.

Years of weather and change eventually faded the lettering, but preservation work restored the sign so that this chapter of the building’s history would remain visible.

Today, it is one of the most recognizable historic features of The Landers exterior—and one of the few places where the Orpheum name still remains physically connected to the building.

For one remarkable summer in 1961, The Landers became a national television studio.

FIVE-STAR JUBILEE brought country music stars Carl Smith, Snooky Lanson, Tex Ritter, Rex Allen, Jimmy Wakely, and their guests to The Landers stage for 28 nationally broadcast episodes on NBC.

Beginning in May, it became the first network color television series produced outside New York City or Los Angeles. Producing early color television in downtown Springfield came with challenges.

Radio-frequency interference from nearby KTTS disrupted the first color taping, forcing production crews to find an unusual solution: later episodes were recorded after midnight, once the radio station had stopped broadcasting for the night. Audiences still came.

The FIVE-STAR JUBILEE chapter lasted only a short time, but the people, performers, technical challenges, national broadcasts, and unexpected ending make it one of the most fascinating episodes in the history of The Landers.

The full story is explored in THE LANDERS: BIOGRAPHY OF A THEATER.

1909–1969

From its earliest years, The Landers changed as entertainment, technology, safety standards, and audience expectations changed around it.

1921 — Following the 1920 fire, the stage and backstage areas were rebuilt. The theatre was expanded, the proscenium firewall restored, projection facilities added, and seating capacity increased. The building reopened as The Landers-Orpheum.

1926 — Manager Ensley Barbour invested heavily in the theatre, installing a new illuminated marquee, improving seating and carpeting, and commissioning decorative interior work.

1928 — A Vitaphone sound-film system was installed, introducing talking pictures to Springfield.

1935 — A major remodeling altered the auditorium significantly. New spring-folding seats were installed, the balcony structure was rebuilt, new stairs and lighting were added, and a large chandelier was installed beneath the dome.

1949–1964 — The Landers continued to evolve as a movie theatre. Changes included new marquees, interior redecorating, seating reconfiguration, alterations to the lobby, and removal of some earlier architectural features.

By the late 1960s, the theatre had become the Landers 400, reflecting its reduced seating capacity and changing role in downtown entertainment.

1970–1999

Springfield Little Theatre’s purchase of The Landers in 1970 began a new era of preservation. The building had endured decades of alterations and neglect, and restoring it would become a long-term responsibility rather than a single project.

1970 — Springfield Little Theatre purchased The Landers for $100,000 and immediately undertook approximately $50,000 in refurbishment. Seats were repaired, the interior was repainted, carpeting was replaced, box seats were uncovered, and the building was prepared for the return of live theatre.

1972 — New air conditioning was installed.

1976 — The Little Theatre Guild purchased a new grand drape.

1982 — A two-year restoration project expanded the east lobby, added a concession area, improved accessibility, moved the box office, and upgraded several public spaces.

1985 — The Commitment to Excellence campaign brought approximately $400,000 in improvements. Work included roof repair, exterior cleaning and sealing, a reproduction of the original 1909 marquee, fire-safety upgrades, plaster repair, repainting based on the theatre’s early color scheme, renewed gilding, and improvements to doors and woodwork.

1988 — Audience seating was refurbished through the Take-A-Seat campaign.

1991–1994 — Dressing rooms, offices, air conditioning, stage lighting, lobby areas, and the rigging system all received further work.

Each project addressed a different need.

Together, they helped keep The Landers alive as both a historic property and a working theatre.

2000–Present

Preservation has continued into the twenty-first century, balancing historic character with the demands of a modern performance venue.

2000 — Approximately $1 million in restoration work included a new roof, tuckpointing, plaster repair, new tile, expanded and renovated restrooms, upgraded sound and lighting, improvements to the orchestra pit, electrical upgrades, structural reinforcement, and custom carpet manufactured to replicate an early Landers pattern.

2003 — The fourth floor was remodeled for rehearsal use, ending the building’s remaining apartment use.

2005 — The historic LANDERS ORPHEUM THEATRE lettering on the north exterior wall was restored.

2006 — All new audience seating was installed, replacing the seats dating to the 1935 remodel.

2012 — The stage was stripped back to its original 1909 floor and rebuilt.

2014 — The balcony was redesigned and refurbished, improving legroom, lighting, carpet, sound-board placement, and technical equipment.

2015 — A new ADA-compliant wheelchair platform was installed in the auditorium.

2021 — Work associated with Springfield Little Theatre’s Next Stage Campaign included structural improvements, tuckpointing, basement reinforcement, sidewalk and water-management work, new front doors, and remodeled dressing rooms.

2024 — More than $2.4 million in improvements included a new HVAC system, roof replacement, restoration and painting of decorative plasterwork, box office expansion, lobby improvements, carpeting, and new draperies.

More than a century after construction, preservation at The Landers remains an ongoing responsibility.

The work continues because the building continues to be used.