Difference between revisions of "New York Circuses"

From Circopedia

m (Circus buildings in New York City moved to New York Circuses: Renamed to provide a more sensible index placement.)
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==Circus Structures or Buildings in New York City==
 
==Circus Structures or Buildings in New York City==
  
===1793-1794: RICKETTS CIRCUS===
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===1793-94: RICKETTS CIRCUS===
  
 
'''Back of Macomb's Houses, 16-20 Broadway'''
 
'''Back of Macomb's Houses, 16-20 Broadway'''
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===1794-1796: RICKETTS CIRCUS===
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===1794-96: RICKETTS CIRCUS===
  
 
'''SW corner of Broadway and Oyster Pasty Lane (Exchange Alley)'''
 
'''SW corner of Broadway and Oyster Pasty Lane (Exchange Alley)'''
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===1797-1798: LAILSON CIRCUS*===
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===1797-98: LAILSON CIRCUS*===
  
 
'''Greenwich Street, South of SW corner of Rector'''
 
'''Greenwich Street, South of SW corner of Rector'''
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===1809-1812: PEPIN & BRESCHARD CIRCUS, then OLYMPIC CIRCUS*===
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===1809-12: PEPIN & BRESCHARD CIRCUS, then OLYMPIC CIRCUS*===
  
 
'''78/85 Anthony (Worth) Street'''
 
'''78/85 Anthony (Worth) Street'''
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===1812-1813: NEW YORK CIRCUS*===
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===1812-13: NEW YORK CIRCUS*===
  
 
'''White Street and Broadway'''
 
'''White Street and Broadway'''
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===1817-1828: NEW CIRCUS===
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===1817-28: NEW CIRCUS===
  
 
'''446-448 Broadway'''
 
'''446-448 Broadway'''
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===1825-1826: LAFAYETTE CIRCUS===
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===1825-26: LAFAYETTE CIRCUS===
  
 
'''308/310 Laurens Street (West Broadway)'''
 
'''308/310 Laurens Street (West Broadway)'''
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===1826-1829: MOUNT PITT CIRCUS===
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===1826-29: MOUNT PITT CIRCUS===
  
 
'''Grand Street, opposite Harman Street (East Broadway)'''
 
'''Grand Street, opposite Harman Street (East Broadway)'''
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===1835-1854: BOWERY AMPHITHEATER===
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===1835-54: BOWERY AMPHITHEATER===
  
 
'''37/39 Bowery'''
 
'''37/39 Bowery'''
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===1853-1856: FRANCONI'S HIPPODROME===
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===1853-56: FRANCONI'S HIPPODROME===
  
 
'''NW corner of Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street'''
 
'''NW corner of Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street'''
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===1863-1864: BROADWAY AMPHITHEATER===
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===1863-64: BROADWAY AMPHITHEATER===
  
 
'''485 Broadway (South corner of Broome)'''
 
'''485 Broadway (South corner of Broome)'''
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===1864-1872: NEW YORK CIRCUS, then HIPPOTHEATRON===
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===1864-72: NEW YORK CIRCUS, then HIPPOTHEATRON===
  
 
'''86/94 E. 14th Street, opposite Irving Place'''
 
'''86/94 E. 14th Street, opposite Irving Place'''
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===1873-1875: P.T. BARNUM'S GREAT ROMAN HIPPODROME===
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===1873-75: P.T. BARNUM'S GREAT ROMAN HIPPODROME===
  
 
'''Between Madison and 4th Avenues, and 26th and 27th Streets'''
 
'''Between Madison and 4th Avenues, and 26th and 27th Streets'''

Revision as of 09:26, 2 November 2008

Compiled by Dominique Jando

Circus Structures or Buildings in New York City

1793-94: RICKETTS CIRCUS

Back of Macomb's Houses, 16-20 Broadway

- British equestrian John Bill Ricketts, who had just opened the first circus in America in Philadelphia, April 3, 1793, opens the first New York circus on August 7, 1793. It is a wooden, roofless (at least at the beginning) amphitheater where Ricketts and his company perform until the 4th of November.

- September-October 1794: the circus is leased by Thomas Swann who gives in the building equestrian performances, and exhibits trained monkeys.


1794-96: RICKETTS CIRCUS

SW corner of Broadway and Oyster Pasty Lane (Exchange Alley)

- November 24, 1794: John Bill Ricketts opens a 'new and commodious amphitheater' on Broadway, north of his former location. He and his company perform there until April 21, 1795.

- September 16, 1796: Ricketts returns to New York, but is forced to close three days later, due to an epidemic of Yellow Fever.

- May 7, 1796: Ricketts performs in his NY circus until July 29.

- 21-30 September: Ricketts gives a series of performances on his way back from Boston to Philadelphia (where his main circus building is located).


1797-1800: RICKETTS CIRCUS*

Greenwich Street, North of Rector.

- March 16, 1797: Ricketts opens a brand new wooden amphitheater, equipped with a ring for equestrian presentations and a stage for pantomimes, in the European fashion. Season lasts until July 12. It is Ricketts's last season in New York.

- October 17-November 27(?), 1797: British equestrian Philip Lailson and his company (Ricketts's only competition) rent the circus and perform there.

- Ricketts will announce his return in December 1798, but will never make it. The amphitheater however will stand at least until 1800.


1797-98: LAILSON CIRCUS*

Greenwich Street, South of SW corner of Rector

- December 8, 1797: Philip Lailson opens a new amphitheater on Greenwich Street. He and his company perform there until February 1, 1798, but the season proves a failure. The circus is offered for sale on July 18, 1798.

- February 8, 1799: the circus company of Franklin & Johnson leases Lailson's Circus and performs there until March 19.


[* Questions have been raised regarding the proximity of Ricketts and Lailson circuses on Greenwich Street, and the possibility that Lailson actually didn't leave Ricketts Circus in November 1797, but simply renovated and improved it instead, and re-opened it under his own name, implying that the two circuses could actually have been one and the same.]


1808: PEPIN & BRESCHARD CIRCUS

Corner of Magazine (Pearl) Street and Broadway

- Roofless wooden enclosure. Opens June 2, 1808, under the management of Victor Pépin and Jean Breschard. Closed on January 1, 1809.


1809-12: PEPIN & BRESCHARD CIRCUS, then OLYMPIC CIRCUS*

78/85 Anthony (Worth) Street

- Wooden structure (at first roofless, then covered) erected on North side of Anthony, just West of Broadway. First season: June 21, 1809-September 29, 1808. The company returns in 1810 and 1811, at the same period of time (June-September).

- May 22-July 4, 1812: building is renamed Olympic Circus and hosts Dwyer & Breschard Circus.

- July 14-August 28, 1812: building hosts the company of Twaits & Placide.


1812-13: NEW YORK CIRCUS*

White Street and Broadway

- June-September 1812: covered wooden structure, poorly furbished, erected on the East side of Broadway at the corner of White Street by Cayetano Mariotini and his partners in the Cayetano, Codet, Menial & Redon Circus.

- July 1-August 14, 1813: Pepin, Breschard & Cayetano Circus.


[* Some confusion exists regarding these two circuses, as to which one survived the other, and which troupe played in which one.]


1817-28: NEW CIRCUS

446-448 Broadway

- August 21-September 26, 1817: British equestrian James West builds a new wooden circus structure on the East side of Broadway, at Canal Street, and performs there with his company.

- February 11-August 5, 1822: West returns to his circus where he produces a series of pantomimes with great success. (No known record of his performing there between these two seasons).

- August 1822: West sells his assets to Steven Price and Edmond Simpson, owners of the Park Theatre, and returns to England. Price & Simpson embark on a circus venture, at the New Circus and on tour, until 1828, after which date they transform the building into a Theatre, the Theatre Broadway. This venture is short-lived; in 1829, the building becomes a 'repository for the sale of horses, carriages, etc.', known as Tattersall's (after the famous London firm).


1825-26: LAFAYETTE CIRCUS

308/310 Laurens Street (West Broadway)

- July 4, 1825: Opening of the Lafayette Circus (so named as a patriotic tribute to the Marquis de Lafayette), erected at the corner of Laurens Street and Grand Street by Charles W. Sandford (later General Sandford), a New York socialite, railroad lawyer and land speculator, who wanted to give some life to a new neighborhood he was developing. Closed March 26, 1826, and was sold to become the Lafayette Theatre. (Destroyed by fire in 1829.)


1826-29: MOUNT PITT CIRCUS

Grand Street, opposite Harman Street (East Broadway)

- November 8, 1826: Opening of the Mount Pitt Circus, a spacious wooden circus structure with a brick front – 'one of the largest place of amusement in America' – built and managed by Charles Sandford (see above: Lafayette Circus). Closed in 1829 after a N.Y. law 'imposing a tax on theatres and circuses' was voted. (Destroyed by fire in August, 1829.)


1830: BLANCHARD'S AMPHITHEATER

80/90 Chatham Street (Park Row)

- Chatham Garden Theatre, built in 1824 on the North side of Chatham Street, between Duane and Pearl (now City Hall Place), and known as the American Opera House in 1829.

- January 18, 1830: reopens as Blanchard's Amphitheater, with the circus troupe of William Blanchard, seen previously at the Lafayette and Mount Pitt circuses (see above). The troupe stays there for at least three or four months, before moving to Vauxhall Gardens. Then, on March 11, 1811, the house reopens as a theater. At the end of the season (July 1811), it becomes a church, the Presbyterian Chapel.


1835-54: BOWERY AMPHITHEATER

37/39 Bowery

- Built in 1833 as a menagerie by the Zoological Institute, the syndicate of menagerie and circus owners based in Somers, NY, which controlled the traveling menagerie business in the country.

- 1835: Remodeled as a circus, with stage and ring, and opened under the management of June, Titus & Angevine, of the Zoological Institute. Some time later, becomes for a short while the Bowery Theatre.

- 1841: Reverts to circus exhibitions as The New York Circus at the Bowery Theatre.

- 1842: Known as the Amphitheater of the Republic under the management of N. A. Howes of the Zoological Institute.

- 1843-1848: Leased to circus owner John Tryon, who improves the amphitheater and manages it until 1848.

- 1849: Reverted to a menagerie managed by Titus and June.

- 1852-1854: Back to circus, the amphitheater is leased by Richard Sands, whose company settles here until early 1854, with various circus productions. Then, during the summer of 1854, the house is rebuilt and reopened as the Stadt Theatre. It will be known as the New National Circus under the management of A. Montpellier in 1865, before being converted into an armory.


1853-56: FRANCONI'S HIPPODROME

NW corner of Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street

- May 2, 1853: Opening Franconi's Hippodrome, a large (4,000 seats) wood and brick structure with a canvas roof, modeled after the Hippodrome Franconi in Paris, and erected on the site of Thompson Madison Cottage. The company is that of Sands' Circus, with a small addition of 'French' equestrians actually imported from Batty's Hippodrome in England, and led by Henri Franconi (actually Henri Narcisse Franconi, a son of the world-famous Paris Hippodrome manager, Jean Gerard Henri Franconi, known as Henri Franconi, thus creating an intended confusion.) Active with more or less success until 1856, when it is demolished to make way for the Fifth Avenue Hotel.


1859: CHATHAM AMPHITHEATER

201/205 Chatham Street (Park Row)

- Chatham Theatre erected in 1839. Housed the first performance of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' in 1852.

- November 14, 1859: after many alterations made in the house, re-opens as Chatham Amphitheater with the circus troupe of Lafe Nixon & Aymar, under the management of Mess. Nixon and Sherwood. The clown Tony Pastor (later known as "the Father of Vaudeville") is in the company. Adventure is short-lived. In 1860, building reverts to stage presentations. It is torn down in October 1862.


1863-64: BROADWAY AMPHITHEATER

485 Broadway (South corner of Broome)

- December 23, 1850: opens as the Brougham's Lyceum, a legit theatre, with a production of John Brougham's Esmeralda.

- July-October 1863: season with the Martinetti Troupe, a pantomimeA circus play, not necessarily mute, with a dramatic story-line (a regular feature in 18th and 19th century circus performances). troupe that includes acrobats.

- November 10, 1863: Lewis B. Lent transforms the house into a circus, with ring and stage, and reopens it as the Broadway Amphitheatre. It closes in April 1864, after which Lent will move to the New York Circus (see below). The house is reverted to legit drama as the Broadway Theatre.


1864-72: NEW YORK CIRCUS, then HIPPOTHEATRON

86/94 E. 14th Street, opposite Irving Place

[1863 on that site: Nixon's Alhambra (circus in a wood and canvas structure)]

- Open February 8, 1864. Dick Platt, owner.

- April 25, 1864: Spalding & Rodgers Circus rents the building for a series of performances.

- October 3, 1864-June 10, 1864: James N. Nixon becomes manager.

- September 25, 1865: Lewis B. Lent becomes manager.

- October 1865: Dick Platt sells to Lewis B. Lent.

- November 6, 1865-May 27, 1866: season under the name, Lent's New York Circus.

- September 24, 1866-May 4, 1867: for the new season, the building has been refurbished and improved (increased capacity, menagerie and side-show added under seating, etc.) Photo extant.

- April 17, 1869: Reopens as Hippotheatron with circus troupe of Richard Risley Carlisle (Prof. Risley). Lent remains manager until 1872.

- 1872: Sold to P.T. Barnum.

- November 18, 1872: opens under P.T. Barnum's management with a show featuring the pantomimeA circus play, not necessarily mute, with a dramatic story-line (a regular feature in 18th and 19th century circus performances). Bluebeard.

- December 24, 1872: destroyed by fire at 4:00am.


1871: NIXON'S AMPHITHEATER, then in 1879: NEW YORK CIRCUS

728/730 Broadway

- Originally, the Church of the Messiah built in 1838 and used as such until 1864, after which it is used for many forms of entertainment, from vaudeville to legit theatre.

- December 18, 1871: re-opens as Nixon's Amphitheater under the management of James M. Nixon, with a ring installed on the stage. Reverts to Theatre in February 1872.

- October 20, 1879: Becomes the New York Circus under the management of Lewis B. Lent. Adventure ends December 4. Reverts to Theatre again and will become the New Theatre Comique of Harrigan and Hart (1881). Destroyed by fire in 1887.


1873-75: P.T. BARNUM'S GREAT ROMAN HIPPODROME

Between Madison and 4th Avenues, and 26th and 27th Streets

- Site of the old Grand Central train depot. Leased in 1873 to P.T. Barnum, W.C. Coup and Dan Costello, who built a structure with a canvas roof, capable of housing 10,000 spectators around an elongated hippodrome track. There they present The Congress of Nations, a spectacle Barnum bought from circus producer 'Lord' George Sanger in London. The partners used the place as such until 1875. It then became the Gilmore Gardens but P.T. Barnum again used the place on several occasions for circus presentations. The Madison Square Garden was eventually built on the site in 1889.


1897: DORIS WINTER CIRCUS

42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues

- Old Arena Athletic Club building refurbished as a circus ('fitted up for equestrian performances') by E.S. and J.B. Doris, opened November 22, 1897. Proving a failure, it closed January 1, 1898, and the place reopened January 10 as the Moulin Rouge, after Paris' celebrated cabaret. It performed as such a few nights only, before being closed by Police after complaints regarding 'the style of entertainment given there . . .'


See Also

HAGENBECK WILD ANIMALS AT TATTERSALL'S

Seventh Avenue and 55th Street

After the end of the Chicago World Fair, Hagenbeck, the famous animal dealership and circus firm from Hamburg, Germany, transformed the old New York carriage and horse repository building into a circus arena for a short season (1894?).


NIBLO'S GARDEN

NE corner of Broadway and Prince

This famous amusement place (which made pantomimeA circus play, not necessarily mute, with a dramatic story-line (a regular feature in 18th and 19th century circus performances). popular with the Ravels) hosted all sorts of entertainments during its long and eventful existence (1823-1894), including circus performances.


BOSTOCK'S AT ST. NICHOLAS GARDEN

Columbus Ave. at 66th Street

Frank C. Bostock, 'the Animal King,' presented there the wild animal acts of his traveling menagerie in October-November, 1922.


NEW YORK HIPPODROME

Sixth Avenue and 43rd Street

From A Yankee Circus On Mars (1905) to Billy Rose's Jumbo, the huge theatre housed a mixture of circus, theater and vaudeville shows (especially during its first decades) which featured all sorts of traditional circus acts, including herds of performing elephants.


MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

The four Gardens (William Vanderbilt's (1879) and Stanford White's (1890) on Madison Square, and the Gardens on 8th and 7th Avenues) have all regularly housed circus shows, principally those produced by P.T. Barnum and J.A. Bailey,then the Ringling Brothers, and finally Feld Entertainment, Inc., the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.


JOLSON THEATRE

Located at 59th and 8th Ave., it featured the Davenport's European Circus in the 1930s (with Con Colleano) for a Christmas season.