Walnut Street Theatre
- Architect
- William Strickland
- Year
- 1808
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- Philadelphia, PA
Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1808 at the corner of 9th and Walnut Streets, is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. It began in 1809 as the New Circus, with no stage at all — just a ring of sawdust marking the performance area — built of brick because Philadelphia's fire code required it. William Strickland is credited with the Neoclassical design that came to define the building, and it now operates as a nonprofit venue with three stages: the Mainstage, the Independence Studio on 3, and Studio 5.
the building
A theatre of firsts. Walnut Street Theatre installed the first gas footlights of any American theatre in 1837 and, in 1855, became the first theatre in the country to feature air conditioning.
From circus to Greek temple. The building's original brick façade, built for a circus with a peaked roof and a flagpole-topped dome that briefly made it Philadelphia's tallest building, was stripped away in 1828 and replaced with a Greek Revival front; the dome itself had already been removed in 1820 to improve the theatre's sound.
the style
The theatre's Neoclassical identity dates to 1828, when its original circus-era brick façade was replaced with a Greek Revival front, aligning the building with the Neoclassical vocabulary favored for civic and cultural buildings in the young republic.
More on Neoclassicalthe architect
William Strickland, credited with the theatre's Neoclassical design, was one of the major American architects working in Philadelphia in the early 19th century.
significance
Walnut Street Theatre is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recognized as the oldest continuously operating theatre in the United States.
nearby
- William Strickland Row
- Old Federal Reserve Bank
- New York Mutual Life Insurance Company Building
- Robert N.C. Nix, Sr. Federal Building
- St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Philadelphia
- Portico Row