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Windsor Theatre

German Winter Garden; Volks Garden; New Stadt Theatre

Description

Billed as the “Largest Theatre in America”, it alternated over the years between German drama, classical music and opera. Yiddish theatre, and plays by Shakespeare and Ireland’s Dion Boucicault. Appearing there were “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Italian actor Antonio Maiori, Jacob Adler as the Jewish King Lear, magic legend Herrmann the Great and matinee idol James O’Neill (Eugene’s father) in The Count of Monte Cristo. Decades before Broadway became integrated, one could also have seen Callender’s Minstrels,

Constructed, 1855

On this site in the mid-1800s, stood the German Winter Garden (aka Volks Garden), a forgotten treasure of mid-19th century New York’s Kleindeutschland, then the third most dense concentration of Germans in the world. Known for its music and family-friendly ambiance, it was one of several stately German theatres, banks and beer gardens on the Bowery, Little Germany’s cultural hub. The Winter Garden’s glass-encased dome was one of the first to use cast-iron rib framing.

Rebuilt, 1864

The structure was replaced by the 3,500 seat New Stadt Theatre

Renamed, 1878

which became the Windsor Theatre

Demolished, 1910

Commemorated, 2016

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