Winter Garden Theatre (1850) - Groundbreaking in 1850

Groundbreaking in 1850

The theatre was originally planned in 1850 for the first engagement of the famous singer from Sweden, Jenny Lind, known as the "Swedish Nightingale". Located at 667 Broadway, New York, across from Bond Street just south of Amity Street (today's West Third Street), the new theatre was to be "one of the largest musical halls in the world," boasting one of the largest stages in New York.

Delays in construction meant that the theatre wasn't finished in time for Miss Lind's first show. She arrived to great fanfare and a reported gathering of over 40,000 (all arranged by her manager, P. T. Barnum), but without the theatre being built for her; instead, Miss Lind opened at New York City's Castle Garden. The theatre that was to have opened with "the name of Jenny Lind would attract attention all over the country", instead was later opened and was christened Tripler Hall, thereafter, playing numerous minstrel shows, an entertainment then quite fashionable on the American stage.

There were a few notable exceptions to these theatrical diversions, demonstrating that Tripler Hall had a more legitimate reputation during this period. In December 1850 an important ceremonial meeting was attended by thousands of Freemasons of New York City at Tripler Hall, of which it was written: "the event was regarded and still is regarded as a landmark in the history of Freemasonry in the history of New York." In February 1852 a memorial service was held at Tripler Hall for the renowned American novelist James Fenimore Cooper, presided over by the noted statesman Daniel Webster, with a eulogies said by Washington Irving, and William Cullen Bryant. That same year William Thackeray concluded a national tour with a lecture at Tripler Hall.

The theatre went through several different managers during this period, each manager naming the theatre as he or she pleased. When the theatre was used for the American Art-Union Prizes Distribution, a report in The Illustrated London News gave an interesting description of the interior of Tripler Hall:

"Never - not even on the nights of the "Nightingale" - has the capacity of Tripler Hall been more fully booked than the evening appointed for the distribution of the Art Union prices. The immense floor (30 feet wider than Kester Hall), the aisles, the galleries before the stage, and beside the doors, were crowded to excess."

On May 15, 1855, the theatre passed to new management with a musical by John and Morris Barnett called Monsieur Jacques, and was renamed Metropolitan Hall, and managed by John Lafarge, owner of the famed Lafarge House which adjoined the theatre.