The
Park Theatre, originally known as the
New Theatre, was a
playhousePlayhouse is a common Elizabethan term for a theatre, especially those built in London such as The Globe and The Rose.It is also used as the name for theatres today:- Australia :* Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, located at 21, 23, and 25
Park RowPark Row may refer to:* Park Row , a street in downtown Manhattan* Park Row Building, 1899 Manhattan skyscraper* Park Row a BMT elevated train terminal bordering the Manhattan street* Park Row , a 1952 film by Samuel Fuller...
, about 200 feet (61 m) east of Ann Street and backing Theatre Alley. The location, at the north end of the city, overlooked the park that would soon house
City HallNew York City Hall is located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA, between Broadway, Park Row, and Chambers Street. The building is the oldest City Hall in the United States that still houses its original governmental functions, such as...
. French architect
Marc Isambard BrunelSir Marc Isambard Brunel, FRS FRSE was a French-born engineer who settled in England. He preferred the name Isambard, but is generally known to history as Marc to avoid confusion with his more famous son Isambard Kingdom Brunel...
, father of the famous engineer
Isambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
, designed the building in the 1790s. Construction costs mounted to precipitous levels, and changes were made in the design; the resulting theatre had a rather plain exterior. The doors opened in January 1798.
In its early years, the Park enjoyed little to no competition in New York City. Nevertheless, it rarely made a profit for its owners or managers, prompting them to sell it in 1805. Under the management of Stephen Price and
Edmund SimpsonEdmund Simpson was an actor and theater manager. He made his theatrical début at the Towcester Theatre in England in May 1806 as Baron Steinfort in August von Kotzebue's The Stranger. In this country Simpson first appeared at the New York Park Theatre on 22 October 1809, as Hurry Dornton in The...
in the 1810s and 1820s, the Park enjoyed its most successful period. Price and Simpson initiated a
star systemThe star system was the method of creating, promoting and exploiting movie stars in Classical Hollywood cinema. Studios would select promising young actors and glamorise and create personas for them, often inventing new names and even new backgrounds...
by importing English talent and providing the theatre a veneer of
upper-classIn social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
respectability. Rivals such as the
Chatham GardenThe Chatham Garden Theatre or Chatham Theatre was a playhouse in the Chatham Gardens of New York City. It was located on the north side of Chatham Street on Park Row between Pearl and Duane streets in lower Manhattan. The grounds ran through to Augustus Street...
and
BoweryThe Bowery Theatre was a playhouse in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City. Although it was founded by rich families to compete with the upscale Park Theatre, the Bowery saw its most successful period under the populist, pro-American management of Thomas Hamblin in the 1830s and 1840s...
theatres appeared in the 1820s, and the Park had to adapt to survive.
BlackfaceBlackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
acts and
melodramaThe term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
squeezed
Italian operaItalian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...
and English drama out of their preferential positions. Nevertheless, the theatre maintained its high-class image. The Park Theatre burnt down in 1848.
Construction
In the late 18th century, New York's only playhouse was the decaying and increasingly low-brow John Street Theatre. Tired of attending such an establishment, a group of wealthy New Yorkers began planning the construction of a new playhouse in 1795. Investors bought 113 shares at $375 each to cover the estimated $42,375 cost. To plan the structure, the owners hired celebrated architect
Marc Isambard BrunelSir Marc Isambard Brunel, FRS FRSE was a French-born engineer who settled in England. He preferred the name Isambard, but is generally known to history as Marc to avoid confusion with his more famous son Isambard Kingdom Brunel...
, a Frenchman who had fled to New York to avoid the
Reign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
and was currently the city's engineer. Part way through construction, however, the project ran out of money. The owners sold more shares for what would eventually mount to a construction cost of more than $130,000.
As a cost-saving measure, Brunel's exterior design for the building was not implemented. The resulting three-story structure measured 80 feet (24.4 m) wide by 165 feet (50.3 m) deep and was made of plain dressed stone. The overall effect was an air of austerity. The interiors, on the other hand, were quite lavish. The building followed the traditional European style of placing a
galleryAn auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
over three tiers of
boxesIn theater, a box is a small, separated seating area in the auditorium for a limited number of people.Boxes are typically placed immediately to the front, side and above the level of the stage. They are often separate rooms with an open viewing area which typically seat five people or fewer. ...
, which overlooked the U-shaped pit.
Early management
The section of Manhattan where the theatre stood was not stylish: the New Theatre, as it was called, was neighbor to Bridewell Prison, a
tent cityA tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents. Informal tent cities may be set up without authorization by homeless people or protesters. As well, state governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house refugees, evacuees, or soldiers...
's worth of squatters, and the local
poorhouseA poorhouse or workhouse was a government-run facility in the past for the support and housing of dependent or needy persons, typically run by a local government entity such as a county or municipality....
. Lewis Hallam, Jr., and John Hodgkinson, both members of the John Street Theatre company, obtained the building's lease. They hired remnants of the Colonial Old American Company to form the nucleus of the theatre's in-house troupe and thus give the establishment the sheen of tradition and American culture. Meanwhile, the men quarreled, and construction continued languorously. The theatre finally held its first performance on 29 January 1798, despite still being under construction. The gross was an impressive $1,232, and, according to theatre historian
T. Allston BrownThomas Allston Brown was an American theater critic, newspaper editor, talent agent and manager, and theater historian, best known for his History of the American Stage, published in 1872. Brown was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts...
, hundreds of potential patrons had to be turned away.
New York newspapers generally praised the New Theatre:
The theatre offered performances on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
William DunlapWilliam Dunlap was a pioneer of the American theater. He was a producer, playwright, and actor, as well as a historian. He managed two of New York's earliest and most prominent theaters, the John Street Theatre and the Park Theatre...
eventually joined the management team. Hallam parted mid-season, and Hodgkinson waited for season's end before doing the same. Dunlap remained as sole proprietor; his expenses were so great that he had to make at least $1,200 per week to break even. He left in 1805 after declaring
bankruptcyBankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
. After a few more failed managers, the owners sold the theatre to
John Jacob AstorJohn Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...
and John Beekman in 1805. These men kept it until its demolition in 1848.
The Park as high culture
Over three months in 1807, an English architect named J. J. Holland remodeled the theatre's interior. He added
gas lightingGas lighting is production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, including hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, or natural gas. Before electricity became sufficiently widespread and economical to allow for general public use, gas was the most...
, coffee rooms, roomier boxes, and a repainted ceiling. Stephen Price became manager in 1808. He instituted a
star systemThe star system was the method of creating, promoting and exploiting movie stars in Classical Hollywood cinema. Studios would select promising young actors and glamorise and create personas for them, often inventing new names and even new backgrounds...
, whereby he paid English actors and actresses to play
English dramaDrama was introduced to England from Europe by the Romans, and auditoriums were constructed across the country for this purpose. By the medieval period, the mummers' plays had developed, a form of early street theatre associated with the Morris dance, concentrating on themes such as Saint George...
s there. Price spent much of his time in England, where he had a successful acting career, leaving much of the actual business of theatre management to
Edmund SimpsonEdmund Simpson was an actor and theater manager. He made his theatrical début at the Towcester Theatre in England in May 1806 as Baron Steinfort in August von Kotzebue's The Stranger. In this country Simpson first appeared at the New York Park Theatre on 22 October 1809, as Hurry Dornton in The...
. The Park at this point was already known for high-class entertainments, but Price and Simpson's policies helped to reinforce this as they booked English drama,
Italian operaItalian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...
, and other
upper-classIn social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
bills, such as actress
Clara FisherClara Fisher was a British prodigy who, at age six, began performing on the London stage in 1817. Ten years later she made her New York debut in 1827. Her acting career lasted for 72 years and in her later life she was commonly called "the oldest living actress".-The British stage:Clara Fisher was...
. Price and Simpson also fostered the careers of many American performers, including
Edwin ForrestEdwin Forrest was an American actor.-Early life:Forrest was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of Scottish and German descent. His father died and he was brought up by his mother, a German woman of humble origins. He was educated at the common schools in Philadelphia, and early evinced a taste...
and
Charlotte Saunders CushmanCharlotte Saunders Cushman was an American stage actress.-Early life:She was a descendant in the eighth generation from Pilgrim Robert Cushman.Robert Cushman brought the family name to the United States on the Mayflower as a leader and great advocate for emigration to America...
. The theatre burnt down in May 1820. All but the exterior walls were destroyed. The owners rebuilt the following year.
In the early 1820s, the New Theatre was New York's
only theatre, and this lack of competition proved its most profitable period. The
Chatham Garden TheatreThe Chatham Garden Theatre or Chatham Theatre was a playhouse in the Chatham Gardens of New York City. It was located on the north side of Chatham Street on Park Row between Pearl and Duane streets in lower Manhattan. The grounds ran through to Augustus Street...
was built in 1823 and provided the first real challenge to the Park's primacy; the
Bowery TheatreThe Bowery Theatre was a playhouse in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City. Although it was founded by rich families to compete with the upscale Park Theatre, the Bowery saw its most successful period under the populist, pro-American management of Thomas Hamblin in the 1830s and 1840s...
followed in 1826. The New Theatre, having lost its newness, became known as the Park Theatre around this time. At first, each of the rivals aimed for the same upper-class audience. However, by the late 1820s and early 1830s, the Bowery and Chatham Garden had begun to cater to a more
working-classWorking class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
clientele. In comparison, the Park became the theatre of choice for
bon ton. This was helped by the evolution of its neighborhood. New York home owners had steadily moved northward from
Bowling GreenBowling Green is a small public park in Lower Manhattan at the foot of Broadway next to the site of the original Dutch fort of New Amsterdam. Built in 1733, originally including a bowling green, it is the oldest public park in New York City and is surrounded by its original 18th century fence. At...
so that by this point, the Park stood in an upper-class residential area and fronted City Hall and a large park.
CoffeehouseA coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
s and hotels soon followed.
Despite its upper-class luster, however, some commentators found due cause to criticize the Park.
Frances TrollopeFrances Milton Trollope was an English novelist and writer who published as Mrs. Trollope or Mrs. Frances Trollope...
gave a mixed review:
Final years
By the late 1830s,
blackfaceBlackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
acts and Bowery-style
melodramaThe term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
had come to eclipse traditional drama in popularity for New York audiences. Simpson adapted, booking more novelty acts and entertainments that emphasized
spectacleIn general, spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Derived in Middle English from c. 1340 as "specially prepared or arranged display" it was borrowed from Old French spectacle, itself a reflection of the Latin spectaculum "a show" from spectare "to view,...
over high culture. The patronage changed, as well, as the
New York HeraldThe New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
noted: Nevertheless, the theatre's traditional patronage continued to support it, and the Park largely maintained its high-class reputation.
Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
wrote a more critical editorial in the
Broadway JournalThe Broadway Journal was a short-lived New York City-based periodical founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844. A year later, the publication was bought by Edgar Allan Poe, becoming the only magazine he ever owned, though it failed after only a few months under his...
:
The Park Theatre was destroyed by fire 18 December 1848. The
Astor familyThe Astor family is a Anglo-American business family of German descent notable for their prominence in business, society, and politics.-Founding family members:...
opted not to rebuild it, the more fashionable clientele having moved north to
Washington SquareWashington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
and the Fifth Avenue; instead they had stores constructed on the site.