Chatham Garden Theatre

Chatham Theatre; Free Presbyterian Chatham Street Chapel; Broadway Tabernacle

Description

Opened, May 17, 1824

The Chatham Garden Theatre or Chatham Theatre was a playhouse in the Chatham Gardens of New York City. The Chatham Garden Theatre was the first major competition to the high-class Park Theatre (though in its later years it sank to the bottom of New York's theatrical order). It changed hands many times: In 1823 it started as a makeshift playhouse under a white, canvas tent called the Pavilion Theatre.

Converted, Mar 15, 1832

In the spring of 1832, Lewis Tappan and William Green rented the building, which was one of NYC's largest public halls.. They offered it to the Presbyterian minister Charles Grandison Finney, a radical abolitionist who converted it into the Broadway Tabernacle/Free Presbyterian Chatham Street Chapel. The Tappan brothers also used the chapel for abolitionist meetings.

In its later years, the church became a hotel. The building has since been demolished.

Factoids

1854 -After the property at 40 Anthony Street (now Worth Street) was sold, the church rented space at Broadway Tabernacle (located at Chatham Theater).

Sept 11, 1824 -Lafayette attended a performance at the Chatham Garden Theatre, and he returned the following summer, on July 8th, 1825.

Related People & Organizations

Lewis Tappan,The Chatham Chapel, which Lewis Tappan rented for abolitionist meetings,

Frederick Douglass,He became an international human rights star and spoke for the American Anti-Slavery Society to packed audiences at Broadway Tabernacle,

Related Sites

Broadway Tabernacle Church-It was founded in the former Chatham Garden Theatre (built 1824), which became known as the Chatham Street Chapel.

Municipal Building-Chatham Garden Theatre is located where the 40-story David Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building now stands.

Images

2 Results,Show less

Images

2 Images,Show less

Chatham Garden Theatre exterior

Chatham Garden Theatre interior

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