The Sheldon Theatre entertains, educates, and enlightens the community and its visitors through the transformative power of the performing arts. Built in 1904, the Sheldon Theatre is a vital link between the region’s historic identity and its evolving future. Among the oldest operating theatres in Minnesota, and one of the few from the era to maintain a commitment to live performance throughout its lifespan (even during a period as a movie house), the Sheldon is a community treasure. The unusual public/private partnership that created the Sheldon began at the start of the twentieth century when Theodore B. Sheldon, a successful businessman and Red Wing City Council member, bestowed $83,000 in trust to the City of Red Wing. His will stipulated that the money be used to develop a public institution for “some public benefit but nonsectarian purpose…” The trust directors, including Sheldon’s second wife Annie, decided upon a theatre — the second municipally owned theatre in the United States, and first west of the Mississippi. In 1904, four years after Sheldon’s passing, construction was complete on the T. B. Sheldon Memorial Auditorium, now known as Sheldon Theatre.