Interior View of Shubert, Kansas City, Mo. pictures seating for 1,625 patrons of Kansas City's legitimate theater, with a seating capacity of 700 on the main floor, 450 on the balcony and 415 in the gallery. The Shubert was located just west of 10th and Baltimore, with an entrance on 10th. (The site is familiar toady as the Kansas City Public Library Parking Garage.) Every seat in the house will be reserved, and only upholstered chairs will be used, being arranged with the comfort and safety of the public in view, the spacing and width of aisles being given special consideration by the architects, reported The Kansas City Star Sept. 15, 1905, when the Shubert was being built. The first floor will be depressed from an inclined entrance from which the patrons may walk into both the galleries and balcony without climbing a stairway, the main floor being considerably below the entrance level. Decorations will be by Tiffany and other appointments will be of an equally high order. Charles E. Fox Jr., member of the widely known theater architectural firm of Chicago, who designed the Nixon Theater of Pittsburgh, perhaps the finest playhouse from all viewpoints in the United States, and after which the Shuberts' Theater will be planned, is in Kansas City preparing details as to the actual construction of the building, which will be known as the Samuel S. Shubert Theater, in honor of a member of the Shubert family who died last May from injuries received in a railroad accident.Balconies and ceiling were supported by steel beams, which made supporting pillars unnecessary. Proscenium opening was 40 feet wide. Twenty dressing rooms in tiers were under the stage and there was a special dressing room for stars. The theater opened in the fall of 1906. The post card was published in color by Hall Brothers several years after the opening of the theater. Kansas City Times, May 19, 1978.
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