Ball's Auditorium
One block from this site stood Ball's Auditorium from 1945 to 1995. Here, Reginald Ball, Sr. operated a trade school to help returning World War II African- American veterans obtain jobs through training in the crafts. By the 1950s, the trade school had largely completed its task and the facility began to be used extensively for community activities, concerts, and paid events. During the 1950s and 1960s, Ball's Auditorium hosted such performers as Otis Redding, Ruth Brown, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and James Brown as a popular venue on what was then called “the Chitlin Circuit." After its heyday, the facility gradually deteriorated with fewer bookings and uses, and what was left was razed.