Chatham Street Theatre

circa 1830

Wikimedia Commons

Academy of Music

In the early 1850s, a group of New York merchants decided to build an new opera hall to replace the old Astor House. Opened in 1854, it was the largest opera hall in the world containing 4,000 seats. Rather than promote exclusiveness, its creators offered inexpensive seating to attract a large general audience. In this, they were so successful that prostitutes flocked to perfomances.

NYPL ID number: 809597

n.d.

Picture Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

Niblo's Garden, Corner of Broadway and Prince Street, 1828; Niblo's Garden and Theaetre, 1845

Established in 1828, Niblo's was the city's premiere "pleasure garden," suprassing all others in its exclusiveness, expensive entrance food, fancy food and cosmopolitan entertainment.

NYPL ID number: EM11615

1828 and 1845

Emmet Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs,The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

Crystal Palace

Patterned after London's Crystal Palace and its Great Exhibition, New York's Crystal Palace opened in 1853. Its exhibits showcased the world's new industrial achievements of the world but also trumpeted U.S. national accomplishments. It was a highly popular tourist destination, yet blacks could never be sure whether they would be granted admission.

The Crystal Palace burned to the ground in 1858 and was never rebuilt.

185x

Collection of the author