Old Broadway Theatre

The site you are approaching was once home to the Broadway Theatre, a massive performance venue in Lower Manhattan that stood between Pearl and Worth Streets. When it opened in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was the largest theater ever built in New York City, boasting over four thousand seats. Its interior was exceptionally elaborate for the time, featuring thirteen chandeliers, each positioned above a decorative Moorish figure that held a vessel of oil. To keep operating costs down, the theater even manufactured its own gas for lighting in the basement. Despite its grand scale and ambitious design, the venture struggled financially from its inception and lasted only twelve years before being torn down to make way for commercial warehouses.