Sheldon Theatre, Historic performance venue in Red Wing, United States

The Sheldon Theatre is a performance venue in Red Wing built with Renaissance Revival architecture and carefully crafted classical details throughout the interior. The space shows skilled craftsmanship and retains acoustics suited for music and stage productions.

The T.B. Sheldon Memorial Auditorium was proposed by Sheldon's trustees on March 3, 1903, and approved by the city council; it opened on October 10, 1904, with the comic opera The Royal Chef and a performance by the Rossiter Orchestra of Minneapolis. Sheldon's will had directed half his estate to a public, nonsectarian purpose in Red Wing. The city managed the auditorium, and it was nominated as the first municipally owned theatre in the United States.

The name honours Theodore B. Sheldon, the Massachusetts-born businessman who died in 1900 and left half his estate for a public, non-sectarian purpose in Red Wing. Some residents objected from the start: seats stood empty on opening night in protest, and in the 1920s church groups petitioned the city council for censorship and an end to Sunday shows, without success.

The theatre stands at the corner of Third Street and East Avenue in downtown Red Wing, where it is managed by the city. It reopened in 1988 after a restoration and now presents live programming rather than films, its last movie having been shown in May 1988. Check the current programme before travelling, since events range from highbrow to middlebrow.

The theatre's pipe organ was built by the Kilgen company, an organ manufacturer whose instruments were installed in churches and theatres across the United States. The organ is part of the 1904 auditorium's original fittings, and the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 as the T.B. Sheldon Memorial Auditorium.