Chestnut Street Theatre

Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, America's first theatre in the English proscenium style, built in 1793 for a company brought from England by Thomas Wignell. It did not open until 1794 because of an epidemic of yellow fever. A copy of the Theatre Royal at Bath, it was an elegant and impressive building holding about 2,000, with numerous dressing-rooms and two greenrooms. Wignell remained there until his death in 1803, and was succeeded by William Wood and the elder William Warren as joint managers. Under them the theatre enjoyed a monopoly of acting in Philadelphia until the opening of the Walnut Street Theatre in 1811. Sometimes known, from its pre-eminent position in American theatrical life, as ‘Old Drury’, it was one of the first theatres in the United States to be lit by gas (in 1816). Wood's departure in 1826 and the success of the Walnut Street and Arch Street theatres finally forced the Chestnut Street Theatre into bankruptcy; after burning down in 1856 it was not rebuilt until 1863. The last performance given there was in 1913, and the building was finally demolished in 1917.