Sitting on North High Street between 12th and 13th Avenue, it is easy to forget the pure quantity of rock ‘n’ roll history that lives within the walls of the Newport Music Hall. There are not many venues that can brag about hosting Bruce Springsteen, The Grateful Dead, Miles Davis, Green Day and Pearl Jam all on the same stage. The Newport is the longest running rock club in America, having opened its doors for the first time in 1969 as The Agora Ballroom.

The Newport is the rock ‘n’ roll home for Ohio State students, offering up-and-coming bands that usually find their following in college-aged fans. Before shows, lines form outside the club’s giant, dark wooden doors, with eager fans waiting to get the best view of their favorite band.

The general admission seating of the club holds 1,700 people and offers both stage views and a balcony. While the front of the stage is always a popular view to see the show, the front of the Newport balcony is a coveted spot among regulars.

“There is a real rock ‘n’ roll feel to the Newport,” said Bethany Brown, marketing assistant for PromoWest Productions, which runs the Newport. “You can feel the history.”

In 1984, Scott Stienecker purchased the Agora Ballroom and created PromoWest Productions which renamed the venue the Newport Music Hall. At the time, the original owners of the Agora were planning on selling the site to developers who were planning on building a drug store. Stienecker convinced the owners to sell to him based on his idea to keep the rock club active.

The building was built in the 1920s and used as a silent movie theater. In the late ’60s Hank LoConti purchased the building with the intention of turning it into a music club which he named The Agora Ballroom, the second installment of the namesake originated in Cleveland.

By 1970, the Agora had its first national act in Ted Nugent who has come back to play venue many times. The ’70s brought many of rock’s biggest acts to the Agora, including The Allman Brothers, B.B. King, Lou Reed and Pink Floyd.

In a video commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Agora, LoConti spoke of the Agora’s Welfare Wednesdays, which offered a $2 cover for a night of music and unlimited beer. He said one of the first bands to play Welfare Wednesday was REO Speedwagon.

The Agora quickly began a symbol of the campus area. The early ’70s housed a number of riots on High Street. LoConti remembered one particularly malicious riot where rioters destroyed nearly every window they passed on High Street, but not one of the Agora’s windows was damaged.

Determined not to lose the history the Agora had accumulated throughout its first two decades, the current Newport looks strikingly similar to the original club. Last winter, the Newport underwent its first major renovations since its opening. The heating and air conditioning systems were redone, along with the front lobby and the rest rooms Brown said.

The first act to perform at the newly named Newport was Neil Young in 1984. That decade brought in rock heavyweights such as The Talking Heads, U2, The Pretenders and AC/DC. In a famous Newport moment, Tom Petty warmed up the crowd as an opener for Meat Loaf.

As grunge came to the forefront of the music scene in the early ’90s, the Newport brought in acts like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. The Black Crows shot footage for their music video “Hard to Handle” before a performance at the Newport.

Brown likes to tell the story of Limp Bizkit playing the club six times in a year before they hit it big.

“They joked that they were the Newport house band,” Brown said.

Because of its close location to OSU, much of the venue’s promoting is directed at students. Recently the Newport has began intensive Internet promoting Brown said.

Ticket prices at the Newport have stayed relatively low throughout the years.

“We don’t bring in bands with big pyro shows that need to charge lots for tickets,” Brown said. “Our audience doesn’t want to pay that much.”

When Ted Nugent opened the old Agora, tickets ranged from $3.50-$4. The Grateful Dead charged $5.50 in advance and $7 at the door for one of their Agora shows in the ’70s. Today ticket prices usually are under $20, cheap by industry standards. Tickets for 7 p.m. performances by Death Cab For Cutie on Oct. 14 and Howie Day on Nov. 4 are both being sold for $16.