Live music for fifty people, one floor below the Grand Hall
Country bands, cabaret nights and jazz on the first Friday of every month, in a comfortable room with a long bar and a jukebox full of 45s. You are never crammed in, and it is nobody's idea of a shotgun bar.
Every1stFriday First Friday jazz with the CP3 TrioDoors 8pm, music 9 to 11. No cover.
What are you looking for?
If it is the first Friday of the month, come down. The Christopher Pitts Trio plays from 9 to 11, doors open at 8, and there is no cover. For anything else coming up, call the hall on (463) 842-1265.
The whole room can be yours for up to fifty guests, with the tables and chairs already set out and the bar in the room. Six hours starts at $450 Sunday to Friday and $500 on a Saturday, booked through McGowan Hall.
Send Jacob a link to your music and the dates you are free. The room suits acts that play to a seated audience of fifty: country, cabaret, jazz and anything else that works close up.
Check before you invite anyone who cannot. The Columbian is on the lower level and reached by stairs only. There is no elevator in the building and no accessible restroom downstairs.
No. The bar is full service and in the room, and outside alcohol is not allowed anywhere on the property, including the parking lot.
Come for a show, book the room, or play it
What's On
Jazz on the first Friday of every month, plus the country, cabaret and other nights in between.
- First Friday After Party
- What the room books
- What is coming up
Private Nights
Fifty seats, the bar and the jukebox for a birthday, a retirement, or a night your group runs itself.
- Six and twelve hour rates
- What comes with the room
- Book it through McGowan Hall
Play Here
For bands, singers and cabaret acts who want a seated room that came out to listen.
- The room from the stage side
- What to send Jacob
- What kind of act fits
A venue inside a venue
McGowan Hall has stood on North Delaware Street since 1922, when the Knights of Columbus built it. Most people in Indianapolis know it for the Grand Hall upstairs, with its stage, its balcony and room for four hundred at a wedding reception.
The Columbian is the room below it. Smaller, lower lit, built around a long bar, and running its own nights.
"You wouldn't know that the Columbian even exists if you didn't know that McGowan Hall exists."Jacob Smith, Events and Operations Manager
Jacob compares it to the bar or music room inside a hotel: part of the bigger building, with a life of its own.
Before you come down
Yes. There is no cover and no ticket for the First Friday After Party. Doors open at 8pm and the CP3 Jazz Trio plays from 9 until 11. The bar is open and a limited amount of food is available.
Inside McGowan Hall at 1305 N Delaware St, Indianapolis, IN 46202. The Columbian is on the lower level, so once you are inside the building, head downstairs. The hall has its own 65-space parking lot.
No. The room is on the lower level and the only way down is a flight of stairs. There is no elevator in the building and no accessible restroom on that level. The Grand Hall and the main floor restrooms upstairs are accessible.
Yes, for up to fifty guests. Six hours costs $450 Sunday to Friday or $500 on a Saturday; twelve hours costs $600 or $800. Private nights are booked through McGowan Hall, where the same room is listed as the Bar Lounge. Private night details.
The first Friday of the month is the easy way in
Doors at eight, jazz at nine, bar open. Or call the hall and ask what else is coming up downstairs.