Lincoln’s Pershing Auditorium coming down, making way for affordable housing

LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) — Elvis, Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers, Garth Brooks and the Oak Ridge Boys all the rocked the house there.

Circus animals circled its floor, Larry the Cable Guy shared some laughs there and countless state tournament basketball games dribbled to exciting finishes.

But the Pershing Center soon will be a pile of rubble, to be replaced by affordable housing.

‘Official goodbye’

On Thursday, as workers continued to dismantle the 66-year-old auditorium, Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird held a press conference at Pershing, calling it the city’s “official goodbye” to a structure that had outlived its usefulness.

The mayor said the auditorium had hosted everything from “Elvis to Elmo,” calling them cherished memories.

The White Lotus Group of Omaha plans to construct a multi-purpose structure pairing affordable apartments, retail and green space.

The mural that covered the west side of the auditorium was dismantled weeks ago, and is destined for reconstruction at Wyuka Cemetery. Designed by artists Leonard Thiessen and Bill J. Hammon, it depicts sports, circus acts and historical scenes.

As a sports arena, the Pershing Auditorium, also called the Pershing Center, hosted countless state high school basketball and volleyball tournament games, as well as national roller skating championships.

It also was once the home to a couple of short-lived Lincoln indoor football teams, the Capitols and the Haymakers, and a local roller derby team, the No Coast Derby Girls.

Bob Dylan was early concert

The center’s first event, in 1957, featured Nebraska-native Johnny Carson and the Robert Wagner Chorale, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

The last concert in Pershing was nine years ago, featuring the Goo Goo Dolls, according to the website, concertarchives.org

Bob Dylan performed there in 1966, according to the website, which listed 1975 as the busiest year for music at the auditorium, with 17 concerts that year.

Elvis Presley played one of his last concerts at Pershing prior to his death in 1977, and a 1973 performance by the Grateful Dead make up half of the live recordings on the album, “Dick’s Picks, Volume 28.”

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