Niblo's Garden was a New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 theatre on Broadway

Broadway (New York City)

Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...

, near Prince Street. It was established in 1823 as "Columbia Garden" which in 1828 gained the name of the Sans Souci and was later the property of the coffeehouse proprietor and caterer William Niblo. The large theatre that evolved in several stages, occupying more and more of the pleasure ground, was twice burned and rebuilt. On 12 September 1866 Niblo's saw the premiere of The Black Crook

The Black Crook

The Black Crook is considered to be the first piece of musical theatre that conforms to the modern notion of a "book musical". The book is by Charles M. Barras , an American playwright...

, considered to be the first piece of musical theatre that conforms to the modern notion of a "book musical".

Evolution of the building site

Niblo built Niblo's Theater in 1834 after having opened a "resort" which at first only served coffee, ice cream, lemonade and other refreshments. At the time New York was undergoing a construction boom that was extending clusters of buildings much past the locale of City Hall. The garden, surrounded by a plain board fence, covered the block bounded by Prince, Houston, Broadway and Crosby Streets; in the center was the open-air saloon, used also for musical entertainments. In the evenings, Niblo's Garden was illuminated with hundreds of colored-glass lanterns. A separate garden entrance was on Broadway. The refreshment hall was in a pair of rowhouses near the southeast corner of the gardens. The site was once a part of the Bayard farm. It was sold in lots and purchased by Jeremiah Van Rensselaer

Jeremiah Van Rensselaer

Jeremiah Van Rensselaer was a Representative from New York to the United States Congress. He was the cousin of Killian K...

. Prior to Niblo's acquisition of the land, a circus called the Stadium occupied the ground. There was a high fence around it. New Yorkers considered it a beautiful drive up to Niblo's through neighboring suburban farms.

Niblo decided to supplement the refreshments with more extensive entertainment. He erected the Grand Saloon, a small theater or concert hall. The program consisted solely of musical selections until vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 was introduced some time later. The admission to the garden in August 1829 was fifty cents, sufficient to keep out the riff-raff. During the afternoon and evening stagecoaches ran there from the City Hotel, later the location of the Boreel Building at 115 Broadway.

In 1835, Niblo's Garden hosted P. T. Barnum

P. T. Barnum

Phineas Taylor Barnum was an American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus....

's first ever exhibition, marking his entry into show business.

During the summer of 1837 a vaudeville company was formed at Niblo's by Joseph Judson and Joseph Sefton. Farces like Promotion of the General's Hat and Meg Young Wife and Old Umbrella, played there. By the mid-19th century, the theatre was considered New York's most fashionable theatre.

Second Niblo's Garden

The first theater at Niblo's Garden was destroyed by a fire on September 18, 1846. It was not rebuilt and opened until the summer of 1849. The theatre seated approximately 100,200 people and had the best-equipped stage in the city. Italian opera began to be produced there around 1850. Seats were sold at $2 each. Niblo's began to draw the most popular actors and plays. Some of the many players who performed there were E.L. Davenport

Edward Loomis Davenport

Edward Loomis Davenport was an American actor.Born in Boston, he made his first appearance on the stage in Providence, Rhode Island in support of Junius Brutus Booth. Afterwards he went to England, where he supported Mrs. Anna Cora Mowatt , William Charles Macready and others...

, William Wheatley

William Wheatley

William Wheatley was an American stage actor.-Biography:He was born in New York City, the son of Frederick Wheatley, once a favorite actor in Baltimore and Philadelphia. His mother was Sarah Wheatley, who died in 1873. She was an admirable and a justly renowned actress...

, Bennett Barrow, and Maggie Mitchell

Margaret Mitchell (actress)

Margaret Julia Mitchell was an American actress, born in New York. She made her first regular appearance as Julia in The Soldier's Daughter at the Chambers Street Theatre in 1851. The parts in which she was best liked were Jane Eyre, Mignon, Little Barefoot, and Fanchon the Cricket...

.

In the late 1860s, as post-Civil War business boomed, there was a sharp increase in the number of working and middle class people in New York, and these more affluent people sought entertainment. Theaters became more popular, and Niblo's began to offer light comedy. It mounted The Black Crook

The Black Crook

The Black Crook is considered to be the first piece of musical theatre that conforms to the modern notion of a "book musical". The book is by Charles M. Barras , an American playwright...

(1866), considered by many scholars to be the first musical comedy

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

. This was followed by The White Fawn (1868), Le Barbe Blue (1868) and Evangeline (1873). In April 1850 the theatre presented the United States premiere of Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

's Macbeth

Macbeth (opera)

Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...

with Angiolina Bosio

Angiolina Bosio

Angiolina Bosio was an Italian operatic soprano who had a major international career from 1846 until her premature death in 1859 at the age of 29. She sang at the most important opera houses in Boston, Havana, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Saint Petersburg, and Verona...

 as Lady Macbeth.

Final days

The theater was again destroyed by fire in 1872. It was rebuilt by A. T. Stewart.

The final performance at Niblo's Garden was given on March 23, 1895. A few weeks later the building was destroyed to make way for a large office structure erected by sugar-refining titan Henry O. Havemeyer. Only a bit earlier he had purchased the Metropolitan Hotel and the theater.

Some buildings from the 1800s still survive in the neighborhood, but Niblo's location is currently occupied by an office building.