Creation and Early Seasons
The theatre began quite humbly. In 1823 Hippolite Barrière, the manager of the Chatham Gardens in New York City, erected a white, canvas tent in his public pleasure grounds. He dubbed it the Pavilion Theatre and began staging drama there with a ticket price of 25¢. The tent, which was used for other concerts and plays, also housed a saloon. The makeshift playhouse operated through the summer, perhaps the first such summer theatre in the United States.
Stephen Price, manager of New York's Park Theatre, tried to put a stop to Barrière's enterprise by reporting the tent to the authorities as a fire hazard. Barrière responded by erecting a brick-and-mortar structure on the site. The new building, named the Chatham Garden Theatre, opened on 17 May 1824 and played through the normal season.
The theater was an ornate structure designed by architect George Conklin. It had no gallery, and it did not admit African Americans. The balcony was on the same level as the lobby and fronted the garden. The walls had slits and the doorways only blinds to facilitate airflow. Karl Bernhard, a visitor to New York in 1825-26, left this description:
| “ | . . . in Chatham Theatre, situated at the extremity of a public garden, they performed the melo-drama of the Lady of the Lake tolerably well. I was much pleased with the inside of the theatre, and particularly with the decorations; it was full of people, and the heat extreme. Ladies of the first fashion do not go often to the theatre. In the pit persons pulled off their coats, in order to be cool. | ” |
However, the theatre's location was difficult to find. It was only accessible by passing through private buildings on the west side of Chatham Street. The New York Mirror resorted to printing a map to show how to reach the place and offered these instructions:
| “ | he enterance to the theatre is through the Hall of dwelling house on Chatham Street. . . . ou proceed onward to the fountain, which throws up a refreshing column of pure water directly in front of the folding doors to the Theatre. Passing through these doors you ascend, by a double flight of stairs (to the right and left) to the lobby of the first circle of boxes. | ” |
The Chatham Garden Theatre offered popular actors at reasonable prices, and it did well. The playhouse provided the first real competition for the upper-class Park Theatre in its second season, which began on 9 May 1825. It remained a classy establishment for the next three seasons. During this time, it produced the first two American operas, The Sawmill in 1824 and The Forest Rose in 1825.
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