Booth's Theatre

Edwin Booth, one of the most celebrated tragedians of the nineteenth century, built this theater on the corner of Twenty-third Street and Sixth Avenue to serve as a permanent temple for Shakespearean drama. He designed the venue with a reverence for the original texts, rejecting the heavily altered versions that dominated the stage at the time. When it opened in 1869, the building represented the pinnacle of theatrical luxury, featuring a grand vestibule paved in Italian marble and adorned with a statue of his father, the famed actor Junius Brutus Booth. Edwin Booth sought to elevate the profession of acting, and he poured his personal fortune into creating a space that stood in stark contrast to the rougher, less reputable venues of the era.