About Us

Where the main theater is located now was the Elks Grand Ballroom, and originally had a balcony that extended beyond the lower level seats. The hardwood floors are still intact in the theater.

Ownership of the building changed hands many times after the Elks moved their headquarters to what is now the Coborn’s Corporate Office. The building has housed everything from apartments to gift shops, and offices to the home of County Stearns Theatrical Company.

Mark and Dan Barth purchased the facility in February of 1997 and began a major renovation to turn Pioneer Place on Fifth into a sound stage for their video production company, Diversified Media Resources, Inc. During Phase I of the remodel, a decision was made to leave the theater portion of the building intact and open it back up to the public as a venue for professional theater, comedians, musicians, and other traveling shows, as well as a meeting and lecture hall for businesses needing space.

What is now the Pioneer Place on Fifth building was originally built in 1913 as an Elks Lodge. You’ll notice on the granite work outside the building, BPOE (benevolent protective order of the elks) 513 and two clocks with time at 11 am, which is when the Elks would take a moment of silence to remember those who are absent. 

The front entrance area, now known as the Veranda Lounge, was originally comprised of a library and a lounge for members and guests, including a separate women’s lounge. What is currently the main theater was the Elks Grand Ballroom, which originally had a balcony that extended beyond the lower level seats. The hardwood floors are still intact in the theater.

The upstairs (now a full bar and the main restrooms) comprised single occupancy rooms and a shared bathroom/bathing area available to any traveling elks members to stay while visiting St. Cloud. The basement housed a small kitchen and additional rooms and offices. 

Downtown Historic Tour Script: This is a short version of the history of Pioneer Place on Fifth as was used for this historic building tours of St. Cloud: ”When this hall was built in 1914, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks were a respectable middle America fraternal lodge – so respectable that writers made fictional characters as diverse as Sinclair Lewis’s George Babbitt and radio’s Fibber McGee into members to show their roots in small-town life. The lodges were a place where businessmen and civic leaders gathered to talk about local events and participate in social events. The BPOE, it was said, were the “best people on earth. ”The Saint Cloud lodge was organized in 1899 and met for its first fifteen years in rented rooms. Finally, in 1913, they hired architect Rolland Buckley to design a place of their own. Buckley, who had lived in town only one year, designed a two-story classical revival style building with four Tuscan columns facing the street and faced with brown brick and trimmed with Sauk Rapids granite. The lodge originally had a large hall, a library, and a ladies’ sitting room on the main floor, while the upstairs housed sleeping rooms where fellow Elks could spend the night. You can still see evidence of the building’s early ownership with its two stone clocks near the cornice, both set permanently at eleven o’clock. At every gathering of Elks, when the hour of 11:00 p.m. tolls, its members stop all activity and remember those that are absent with an “eleven o’clock toast.” It goes:

Wherever an Elk may roam,

Whatever his lot in life may be,

when this hour falls upon the dial of night

the great heart of Elkdom swells and throbs.

Living or dead, an Elk is never forgotten, never forsaken.

”This ceremony earned a special place in American history in 1918, when General John Pershing, a member of the Elks, arranged for the signing the Armistice ending World War I to fall on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – a date now celebrated as Veterans’ Day.”