Designed and built in 1914 by architect Irwin Dunbar, the design of the building set the Princess Theatre apart from many other buildings in downtown Kirksville, Missouri. Located on the southwest corner of McPherson and Franklin streets, the building's double columns stood tall and the triangle marquee sign attracted an audience for many years. The theatre was opened and owned by the Kennedy family of Kirksville, but this proved to be troublesome when the Kennedys opened a larger and more attractive theatre in 1926--only ten years after the Princess opened. When the Kennedy Theatre opened, it became known as Kirksville's "first-run" theatre, leaving the Princess to become a "second-run" theatre, which led to dwindling audience numbers. As the Kennedy family started to draw away from both theatres because of family concerns and poor health, the Princess Theatre continued to deteriorate until the doors closed in 1957. In 1962, the triangle marquee sign was removed after it was deemed a pedestrian hazard, and the architecture of the building that Dunbar designed was slowly eliminated and replaced.

After lying vacant for 16 years, Fred Hulse purchased the building from the Kennedy family and renovated it into a store called Tina's Fabrics. Herb Sieren purchased the building in 1977 and opened Sieren's Palace, a woman's clothing store, with the interior of the theater the only room retaining the original appearance. In 1987, Kirksville city hall petitioned to have the building torn down due to age and replace it with a parking lot. The History of the Princess Theatre, a master's thesis by Patricia Severns, a student at Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University), was written to prevent the destruction of the building. Her efforts prevailed, and the building was saved.

Daryl Shafer bought the building from the Sieren family in 2011 and remodeled it to open the Princess Emporium, an antique market still open today. Shafer has worked to maintain as much of the history of the Princess Theatre as possible. In 2017, Shafer found and purchased a bas-relief that once hung near the theater's ticket window. According to building records from 1985, the carpet in the balcony was the only flooring that lay untouched. A swatch of this carpet is part of this collection.