Daly's Theatre (30th Street)

You are standing near the former site of Daly's Theatre at 1221 Broadway, a corner that once hosted a bizarre collection of attractions before becoming a refined center for the arts. In 1867, the building debuted as Banvard's Museum, an establishment that promised an educational experience to counter the influence of P.T. Barnum. Visitors were once invited to view a display of living curiosities and a theatrical representation of an old-fashioned hell, complete with real flames and actors dressed as demons. The site even famously housed the Cardiff Giant, a ten-foot-tall petrified stone figure that was touted as an archaeological wonder but was later exposed as a hoax.