The Knickerbocker

After the destruction of his Park Theatre at Twenty-second Street, Henry E. Abbey had no house that he could call his own until 1893, when he opened the theatre at the northeast corner of Thirty-eighth Street, where he introduced Irving, Bernhardt, and other foreign actors of high rank, opening with the first named on November 8, 1893. On September 14, 1897, the house was opened as the Knickerbocker, a name that it still retains.

The Casino

The Casino, at the southeast corner of Thirty-ninth Street, was opened October 21, 1882, with "The Queen's Lace Hankerchief." The building is in the Moorish style, and has been, more than any other theatre in New York, the home of comic opera. Among its greatest successes were Erminie and Florodora, the latter of which seems to have been unfortunate for many of its participants, as several murders and numerous scandals in which Florodora girls were concerned filled the columns of the daily papers and set the town by the ears for some time during and after the run of the play.

The Union Dime Savings Bank

The Union Dime Savings Bank stood on Thirty-second Street, facing Greeley Square, from 1876 to February, 1910. From in front of the bank the old Bloomingdale stages had their point of departure before going out of existence altogether. About fifty years ago, the property belonged to Richard F. Carman, who asked $90,000 for the plot, but took $87,500, remarking to his agent with a chuckle of satisfaction as he closed the bargain: "I guess that fellow's stuck." Such was the opinion of many who considered the price beyond all reason for property in the neighborhood of Thirty-fourth Street; in 1874, when the savings bank took title, it paid $275,000, or about seventy dollars a square foot for approximately four thousand square feet. At the sale in October, 1906, the bank received about two hundred and fifty dollars a square foot; and the purchaser sold to an English syndicate in June, 1909, at a price which is stated to have been in the neighborhood of three hundred and seventy five dollars a square foot, a value for city property only exceeded so far by the plot at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street. This will give some idea of the increment in land values in this vicinity within half a century.

The Metropolitan Opera House

Between Thirty-ninth and Fortieth streets on the west side, taking up the entire block to Seventh Avenue, is the Metropolitan Opera House, which opened October 22, 1883, with Henry E. Abbey as manager. The house has been devoted almost exclusively to grand opera, as it is too great in size to be an ordinary theatre. It has also been the scene of many great gatherings on patriotic occasions, of many public balls, and of concerts, as well as of several fairs. The history of the operas produced and of the great artists and singers who have appeared here would fill a book larger than this. Its interior was destroyed by fire in September, 1892, but was rebuilt in the following year.

The Empire Theatre

Opposite to it on the south side of Fortieth Street is the Empire Theatre, whose entrance is from Broadway. It was opened January 25, 1893, under the management of Charles Frohman, and has been famous, not only for its early stock company, but as the New York home of such actors as John Drew, Maude Adams, and similar stars.

The Metropolitan Casino

The Metropolitan Casino, at the southwest corner of Forty-first Street, was dedicated on May 27, 1880, and opened as a concert hall by Rudolph Aronson on October 10, 1881; to be followed later by Rudolph Bial and his orchestra with concerts and comic operas. On October 20, 1884, owing to bad business, the house became the Cosmopolitan Skating Rink. As early as 1887, a firm of which Bailey the circus man was an original member was started for the purpose of securing the property and opening it as a regular theatre. The house was rebuilt and opened March 3, 1888, as the Broadway Theatre. One of its greatest successes was the spectacular play of Ben Hur, founded on General Lew Wallace's famous story of the same name.

The American Museum

Up to the year 1824, the only marble building in the city was the City Hall; and so strong was the prejudice of workmen against the use of the stone for building purposes, that when John Scudder wished to erect the American Museum on the site of Hampden Hall at the corner of Ann Street and Broadway in the above year, not a workman could be persuaded to undertake the work, and, as a last resource, a convict was pardoned out of Greenwich prison on condition that he would do it. After the Revolution, Hampden Hall was the town residence of Andrew Hopper. In 1840 the museum came into the hands of Phineas T. Barnum, " The Great American Showman," who united with it the collection from Peale's New York Museum and continued to run what he called "a lecture room" in connection with the museum; and here were given what he was pleased to call moral plays, so that many people who would not go to the theatre (horrible, demoralizing place!) went to see Barnum's show without any twinges of conscience

The Olympic Theatre

Between Howard and Grand streets, there was a building originally designed as a circus; but which, as appears from an advertisement of 1812, was the Olympic Theatre under the management of Dwyer and McKenzie. It was West's Circus before 1819, in which year it opened with The Spy. It had both a ring and a stage; and on the latter the Park Theatre Company appeared in 1822 as being at a safe distance from the city which, at that time, was scourged with yellow fever. In 1820 it was a circus under Victor Pepin's management, and it remained a circus as late as 1825, when it was owned by Pierre Lorillard; it occupied the lots 442 to 448 Broadway. In 1827, the circus was converted into a theatre called the Broadway; and at one time, it was known as the Marine Theatre. The Olympic Theatre was, in 1837, built at 444 and the rest of the site was occupied by Tattersall's, a famous horse and carriage mart until the fifties. The theatre was at first unsuccessful, as it was ahead of the times in prices and quality of plays.

William Mitchell leased the house and opened it, December 9, 1839, as a low-priced house for amusing performances; and it soon became the fashion and the most popular place in the city. Steady prosperity followed until 1850, when Mitchell gave it up. After Mitchell, Burton had it for a short time; and on November 6, 1850, it was opened as Fellow's Opera House and Hall of Lyrics with negro minstrels. It was used for some years for all kinds of entertainments that could pay the rent, and was called the American, and in 1853, Christy and Wood's Minstrel Hall. The "Old Circus," as it was sometimes called, was destroyed by fire, December 20, 1854; but was rebuilt and reopened. It became the Broadway Boudoir in January, 1860, and the American again in August, 1863. It was finally destroyed by fire on February 15, 1866, the City Assembly Rooms, which were overhead, suffering a like fate.

Tripler's Hall

Tripler's Hall was opened at 677 Broadway near Bond Street in 1850. Jenny Lind was to have opened the house, but it was not ready upon her arrival early in September of that year and so she appeared under the management of Barnum at Castle Garden; she sang at Tripler's in October. On the twenty-seventh of September, the hall, which was known both as Tripler's and as the Metropolitan, was opened by Henrietta Sontag in concert, repeating here her European successes. On the twenty-fourth of February, 1852, a memorial service, presided over by Daniel Webster and addressed by Washington Irving and William Cullen Bryant, was held in honor of the novelist Cooper, who had died in the preceding September. On September 22, 1853, Adelina Patti, then a child ten years old, appeared in concert, and gave promise of the wonderful voice which was later to enthrall the world. On January 8, 1854, Metropolitan Hall and the adjoining La Farge House were destroyed by fire; but the hall was rebuilt and opened in the following September, under the name of the New York Theatre and Metropolitan Opera House. The great French actress Rachel appeared here in 1855 and during her engagement contracted a severe cold which resulted in her death.

Towards the close of the same year the house was remodeled and called Laura Keene's Varieties; and in the following year, it became Burton's Theatre. In 1859 it became the Winter Garden and Conservatory of the Arts, the first part of the title being that by which it is best known and which it retained until its total destruction by fire, March 23, 1867.

Wallack's Theatre

At 485 Broadway, near Broome Street, John Brougham built and opened the Lyceum in 1850; the performances were principally burlesques and farces. James W. Wallack secured the house and opened it on September 8, 1852, with his sons, Lester and Charles, as stage-manager and treasurer. It was the successor of the old Park Theatre in the selection and presentation of its plays, and was steadily successful for nearly ten years until the playgoers and moved up-town. The prices of admission were fifty and twenty-five cents. The elder Wallack ended his career here as an actor, but not as a manager; as in 1861 he removed to the northeast corner of Thirteenth Street. After Wallack left Number 485, the theatre was continued under various managers and names and underwent various vicissitudes, German opera, melodrama, the legitimate, concerts, Lent's Circus, until 1864, when it came under Wood's management for several years, being torn down in 1869 to make place for dry-goods stores. James W. Wallack's last appearance on the stage was at the close of the season of 1862, when he made his farewell speech; he died two years later.