Some of the brick in the Saenger is older than the theater. When the Pensacola Opera House came down after hurricane damage in 1916 and 1917, builders salvaged its bricks and iron railings and worked them into the theater going up on Palafox. The bricks went into the lower exterior, and the opera house railing went around the lower balcony.
Pensacola, Pensacola area
Saenger Theatre
118 S Palafox, Pensacola · 13 upcoming shows
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Know before you go
A 1925 movie palace
The Saenger opened on April 2, 1925, as a vaudeville and silent movie house, part of a chain of theaters across the Southeast. New Orleans architect Emile Weil, who designed Saengers in Mobile, New Orleans and Shreveport too, drew it in the Spanish Baroque style. Only four of the movie palaces Florida built during its 1920s boom are still standing, and the Saenger shares that short list with the Tampa Theatre, the Polk Theatre in Lakeland and the Florida Theatre in Jacksonville.
Rescue and rebuild
By 1975 the building was worn out and closed, and ABC Southeastern Theatres donated it to the City of Pensacola. Short on money, the city weighed tearing it down for a parking lot until residents organized what became the Friends of the Saenger. It went onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and reopened in September 1981 with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. A $15 million renovation and expansion closed the theater in 2007 and brought it back in 2009 with its original paint and decor restored. The Saenger turned 100 in April 2025.
Who plays the Saenger
The house seats about 1,600. It is home base for the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Pensacola Opera and Ballet Pensacola, so the classical season shares the stage with touring concerts, comedy and Broadway. Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Itzhak Perlman, Mikhail Baryshnikov, George Carlin, Robin Williams and Ziggy Marley have all played here.
Parking on Palafox
The theater has no lot of its own. The Jefferson Street garage is about a block away, and the Intendencia Street deck is close by too. City street spaces are marked with turquoise signs, and a few accessible spaces sit on Palafox near the entrance. Coming from Gulf Breeze or Pensacola Beach, the Pensacola Bay Bridge puts you at the edge of downtown. Palafox restaurants make dinner before the show easy.
See more shows across the Panhandle in Pensacola.