Niblo's Garden

Niblo's Garden (New York). In 1828 William Niblo (1790?–1878), an entrepreneur who had made his money as a caterer and running a stagecoach line between Boston and New York, built the small Sans Souci Theatre on the grounds of the Columbia Garden at Broadway and Prince Street. Offering light, vaudeville‐like entertainments to summer patrons out for fresh air and cool drinks, it proved so successful that a year later he built a larger, more permanent structure. The whole complex was renamed Niblo's Garden and Theatre, which New Yorkers quickly abbreviated to Niblo's Garden. To increase patronage at what was then virtually a northern suburb, Niblo ran stagecoaches from the Battery to the theatre. As the town steadily moved toward his playhouse and older theatres burned or were demolished, Niblo's became a major stage for drama and spectacle. Niblo retired when his own theatre burned in 1846, but was persuaded to rebuild it in 1849. In 1852 he prompted the erection of the Metropolitan Hotel on the site of the garden, and the auditorium thereafter was entered through the hotel lobby. After Niblo retired permanently in 1861, William Wheatley took over management. It was under Wheatley's auspices that The Black Crook was produced there in 1866. The extravaganza's success established the theatre as New York's leading home for musical and dramatic spectacle. It was rebuilt after another fire in 1872, but it never again enjoyed its former prominence because the theatrical center had continued to move still farther north. When it was demolished in 1895 it was New York's oldest playhouse.