Booth's Theatre

Booth's Theatre was a theatre in Manhattan built by actor Edwin Booth. Located on the southeast corner of 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, Booth's Theatre opened on February 3, 1869.The Theatre featured a grand vestibule with Italian marble floors and a large statue of Edwin Booth's father, the Shakespearean actor, Junius Brutus Booth by the sculptor Thomas Ridgeway Gould. The auditorium was similarly elaborate in its decor, and featured a large chandelier, as well as a stage that incorporated the most modern machinery in use at the time, such hydraulic rams to raise and lower scenery, and stage lights that could be completely extinguished during the performance, a first in the United States.Despite the appearances by important talent of the times, Booth could not make the Theatre a financially viable enterprise. It was sold in December 1881, and was converted into McCreery & Co. department store until 1965, when it was demolished to make room for a parking lot.HistoryIn 1869, Edwin Booth, then one of the world's most distinguished stage tragedians and arguably America's greatest Hamlet, opened his theatre, Booth's Theatre, in Manhattan on the southeast corner of 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue.Central to the identity of Booth's theatre was the stage background of Edwin Booth, who belonged to the Booth Family dynasty, which ruled the American stage in the 19th century. It was actually touring with his father, Junius Brutus Booth, that gave Edwin his first break, first appearing as

Lee Shubert built the Booth Theatre in partnership with the producer Winthrop Ames. Named for the actor Edwin Booth (1833-1893), brother to the infamous John Wilkes Booth, the venue was actually the second New York theatre to bear this name.