In early May 1876, the former Albany Theatre (later St. Paul’s Church, the Academy of Music and most recently the Trimble Opera House) became the Leland Opera House, owned by Warren F. Leland (with his brother Charles E. Leland a silent partner) and Alexander Dickey.[i] On May 31, 1876, the Leland brothers and Dickey leased the building to John W. Albaugh for a period of five years at an annual rate of $10,000[ii]. Albaugh had been the theater’s manager since November 1873[iii] and before that had been stage manager at its predecessor, the Trimble Opera House.[iv]

The new Leland Opera House opened on August 28, 1876, with a performance of “Rosedale,” starring Richard Fulton Russell. The Albany Argus reported:

Leland Opera House, more attractive, handsomer and brighter than ever, was thrown open to the public last evening for the coming fall and winter season. Within was a large, brilliant, fashionable, elegant, refined and critical audience. Beauty, wit, grace and fashion came to do homage at the Thespian shrine. It was very swell from the Pompeiian lobby to the new crimson drop. There were lovely gushing women attired in the latest mode of the goddess fashion; sparkling diamonds glittered and flashed; jaunty hats and ribbons and flowers moved prettily, promiscuously and coquettishly. There were men in immaculate ties and kids, and, of course, the inevitable and ubiquitous small boy, who stamped and whistled and sweltered in the gallery. It was a brilliant, picturesque scene, perfectly fitting the beautiful and delicate colored scene surrounding it.[v]

That first season continued in September with performances of “Flying Scud” and in October with Lucia di Lammermoor featuring the Kellogg Grand English Opera.

1876 also saw a major event for one of the theater’s proprietors: Charles E. Leland married actress Rosa St. Clair. Far more than Charles, it is Rosa M. Leland who made the Leland Opera House the success that it was, and who deserves to be remembered as its eponym.

Rosa M. St. Clair

Rosa was born in New York about 1853 as Rosa Marian Delaune (also reported as Dealaune or De Laune.) Rosa’s father died when she was an infant, and Rosa’s mother remarried. Rosa had a half brother, Garrett F. Kelly, with whom she was very close. Assuming the stage name Rosa M. St. Clair[vi], Rosa first came to Albany as part of Sallie Partington’s stock company, hired by Lucien Barnes for the Trimble Opera House’s 1871-1872 season. She made her debut as a walking lady (a non-speaking role in which appearance alone was important), but by the end of the season she had taken leading roles. It was during this season that she and Charles E. Leland fell in love, but Rosa continued her career. During the 1872-1873 season, she appeared in Daly’s Theatre, New York City; in 1874 she played at Booth’s Theatre under managers Henry C. Jarrett and Henry David Palmer; in 1875, Rosa toured the United States with Adelaide Neilson.[vii]

Rosa then left the United States, and spent two years in a Paris convent[viii]. She returned to the United States on December 6, 1875 aboard the same ship as Charles E. Leland[ix]. We assume that Charles had convinced her to return and to marry him, since they were married soon after her return, the same year, that Charles E. Leland opened the new Leland Opera House.[x] Following her marriage, Rosa gave up the stage, with the exception of one tour (described below) and appearances in Leland Opera House benefit performances.

While Rosa had given up her stage career, she must have wanted to keep her hand in the business. In 1880 Charles E. Leland bought out his partner, Alexander Dickey, and became sole owner of the theater. When John Albaugh’s lease expired in 1881, Leland leased the theater to his wife, who would be its manager for the next eight years. On September 22, 1881 the Leland Opera House opened its 1881 – 1882 season, with Mrs. Charles E. Leland it leasee and manager.[xi]

Mrs. Leland quickly showed her sure hand in managing the opera house, with appearances by major stars of the day. For example, that first season saw appearances by Joseph Wheelock, Rose Keene and Miss Mary Anderson, “America’s Tragedienne.”[xii] And the second season featured Nat Goodwin and his wife Elizabeth Weathersby in “Black Flag.”[xiii]

No wonder that Rosa was highly regarded by the city of Albany. One commentator gushed:

The present manager is Mrs. Rosa M Leland, who for the past three seasons has demonstrated perfectly that a woman can run a theatre successfully in every respect provided she has the tact, enterprise, and necessary experience. Mrs. Leland (prior to her marriage), was a successful actress, and in that capacity acquired a knowledge of what is necessary for proper stage effect, attainable in no other way. Her wide acquaintance with the profession, and that which is best in it added to natural executive ability, has had much also to do with her success. The uniform opinion of press and public has been that never has Albany had a better theatre than under her management. Plays of the best order, actors of the highest rank have been seen at the Leland in quick succession.[xiv]

Several sources report that Rosa and Charles Leland’s marriage was not a happy one. This may be inferred from Rosa’s return to the stage “after many years’ absence” in January 1883[xv], and from her  November 1883 tour with the Madison Square Company to California to play the role of Mrs. Dick Chetwyn in Bronson Howard’s “Young Mrs. Winthrop.”[xvi] That same year, she and Charles E. Leland divorced.[xvii]

Rosa continued her successful management of the opera house, with the assistance of her half brother, Garrett F. Kelly. In addition to the benefit performances for the opera house[xviii], Rosa was generous in offering the stage for benefits for other organizations, including the Diocesan League, Exempt Fireman and the Actors Fund,[xix] as well as the Burgesses Corps and the Albany Musical Association.

Over the next years, with the opera house a success, Rosa expanded her business operations. During the winter of 1886-1887, she opened a theatrical agency in New York City. In the spring of 1888, she was able to purchase the theater building, and became both its owner and manager.[xx]

While she was only about 35 years old, these efforts must have taken a toll on Rosa’s constitution. During the summer of 1888, she took a three-month trip to Europe to regain her health[xxi]. But hardly had she returned, when in October 1888, her brother Garrett F. Kelly died.[xxii] Ill and depressed, grieving for her brother who had been her main support, in the late autumn of 1888 Rosa gave up the business. She leased the building to Henry R. Jacobs for a period of five years.[xxiii]

Her health, however, never recovered, and Rosa Leland died on March 10, 1889. Her funeral was held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and her pallbearers included many of the city’s most prominent citizens.[xxiv] She is buried, with her brother Garrett, in St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands.

We will continue our story of the Albany Theatre, with the next episode covering the brief period as the H. R. Jacobs Opera House.

[i] “The Opera House Sold to Warren F. Leland,” Albany Morning Express 08 May 1876; “The Trimble Opera House: Its Legal History – The Curtain Rung Up on the Last Act – A Foreclosure Suit Commenced” Albany Evening Times Dec (probably 27) 1880; Daily Argus 11 May 1876.

[ii] “The Leland Opera House: Its Lease to J.W. Albaugh” Albany Evening Times 01 Jun 1876.

[iii] “H.R. Jacobs Opera House: Appearance of Albany’s Oldest Theatre Under New Management” Albany Evening Times 17 Aug 1889.

[iv] H.P. Phelps, The Players of a Century (Albany: Joseph McDonough, 1880), 309.

[v] “Leland Opera House: Brilliant Opening Last Evening,” Daily Argus 29 Aug 1876.

[vi] The earliest reference to her stage name is a December 1871 article mentioning that the “charming actress” was too ill to perform and was under the care of three doctors (Daily Albany Argus 22 Dec 1871.)

[vii] “A Popular Manager: Mrs. Rosa St. Clair Leland’s Successful Theatrical Career,” Albany Evening Journal 12 Apr 1887; “The Hand of Death: Rosa M. Leland Passes Away – A Notable Woman – Obituary Notes,” Albany Evening Journal 11 Mar 1889. A notice following Rosa’s 1871-1872 debut season was less than enthusiastic about her acting skills, saying that she “manifested splendid taste in dressing, and fair talent in minor parts.” “Dramatic Personals,” Albany Evening Times 21 Aug 1872.

[viii] “The Hand of Death: Rosa M. Leland Passes Away ”.

[ix] Adriatic ship’s manifest for a journey departing from Liverpool, England and Queenstown, Ireland and arriving in New York City 06 Dec 1875; a scan of the document is available on Ancestry.com. Listed in the same ship’s manifest, immediately adjacent to  Rosa and Charles, were George Burlingham (the Delavan Hotel’s manager), and David Rose (partner in an Albany carriage-making firm). “Personal” (Daily Argus 06 Dec 1875) describes the arrival of Leland, Burlingham and Rose in New York, but does not mention Rosa. Leland, Burlingham and Rose had sailed for Europe together two months earlier (“Personal,” Daily Argus 05 Oct 1875).

[x] “A Popular Manager: Mrs. Rosa St. Clair Leland’s Successful Theatrical Career”; “Obituary – Rosa M. Leland,” Albany Times 11 Mar 1889.

[xi] “Obituary – Rosa M. Leland”.

[xii] Classified advertisement, Albany Evening Journal, 24 Dec 1881.

[xiii] Classified advertisement, Albany Evening Journal, 18 Sep 1882.

[xiv] H. P. Phelps (compiler), The Albany Hand-Book (Albany: Brandow & Barton, 1884), 101.

[xv] “Theatrical Chronology,” The New York Clipper Annual for 1883, 2.

[xvi] “Obituary – Rosa M. Leland”; “The Hand of Death: Rosa M. Leland Passes Away ”. The Sacramento Union carried multiple references to such a production in March 1883. Rosa appeared in the same play at a Leland Opera House benefit shortly afterward (Albany Morning Express, 27 Apr 1883).

[xvii] “Entre Nous,” The Theater, volume 5, number 10, March 11-18, 1889, page 212.

[xviii] In addition to the 1883 “Young Mrs. Winthrop” event mentioned above, Rosa Leland performed in at least four other benefits: as Mrs. Beresford with Lester Wallack in “Impulse” in 1885; as Belinda Treheone in “Engaged” in 1886; as Mrs. Vane with Miss Rose Coghland and Osmond Tearle in “Masks and Faces” in 1887; as Lady Millicent with Dion Boucicault in “The Jilt” in 1888. (“The Hand of Death: Rosa M. Leland Passes Away ”)

[xix] “Death of Mrs. Leland,” Albany Evening Journal, 11 Mar 1889.

[xx] “The Highest Bidder: Mrs. Leland in New and Successful Role,” Albany Times 24 Apr 1888; “Obituary – Rosa M. Leland”.

[xxi] “The Hand of Death: Rosa M. Leland Passes Away”.

[xxii] “Death of Mrs. Leland”.

[xxiii] “Chat By the Way,” Albany Evening Times 19 Nov 1888; “H.R. Jacobs Opera House: Appearance of Albany’s Oldest Theatre Under New Management” Albany Evening Times 17 Aug 1889; “Obituary – Rosa M. Leland”; “The Hand of Death: Rosa M. Leland Passes Away”.

[xxiv] “The Hand of Death: Rosa M. Leland Passes Away”; The Theater, volume 5, number 10, March 11-18, 1889, page 212; “Obituary – Rosa M. Leland”; Albany Times 13 Mar 1889.

 

After the fire of January 1868, the blackened façade of the Academy of Music (formerly the Albany Theatre and St. Paul’s Church) stood alone and forlorn on South Pearl Street for almost two years. There was wide public interest in building a new Academy of Music, but progress came very slowly. In November 1868, Hugh J. Hastings sold the property to John M. Trimble’s widow, Mary Ann Trimble.[i] Then in March 1869, New York State chartered a corporation named “The Academy of Music in the City of Albany,” whose aim to was issue stock to fund a new theater.[ii] Later that month, three trustees were elected, one of whom was the owner of Albany’s Delavan House, Charles E. Leland, who will figure prominently in this story.[iii]

But it was only in November 1869 that Mrs. Trimble took action, in conjunction with Lucien Barnes, husband of her daughter Ada G. Trimble[iv]. Barnes (the uncle of William Barnes, Jr., head of the Albany Republican organization[v]) had been chief clerk and cashier at the New York State Department of Insurance[vi], and no doubt helped his mother-in-law arrange the issuance of $40,000 in bonds, mortgaged by three trustees, among them (once again) Charles E. Leland.[vii] Mary Ann Trimble leased the theater to Barnes for a period of eleven years at a nominal rate of $1,000 annually, conditioned on his paying the principal and interest of the bonds.[viii]

Barnes hired architect Thomas R. Jackson, who had produced the designs for the Academy of Music six years earlier. The building went up very quickly, and was complete only 51 days after work began.[ix] The day before the grand opening, the theater was opened for the stockholders, with refreshments served by Charles E. Leland’s Delavan Hotel staff.

Of the Opera House itself we cannot speak in too high terms of praise. It is certainly one of the most beautiful places of amusement in the country. The decorations are superb, the fixtures unexcelled, and the entire outfit the best money can buy. No expense has been spared to make it, in all respects and every particular, equal to any of the metropolitan theatres. The private boxes are magnificently furnished – each one being a parlor of itself. In fact not anything is lacking to ensure comfort and pleasure to the patrons of the establishment.[x]

The next evening, December 31, 1869, the new theater opened with a production of Richard Sheridan’s The School for Scandal.

Only four days after the theater’s reopening, a tragedy occurred, when the music director, Conrad Louis Underner, died suddenly during a performance.[xi] “Lewey” was the son of well-known local music Conrad Underner, with whom he had played in the orchestra of the old Albany Theatre.[xii] He was also a composer of several marches. Lewey’s brother, John Underner, was also a composer and organist at St. Paul’s Church in 1847, when it was in the former Albany Theatre.

A highlight of the first season was the production of “Black Crook,” featuring lead dancer Marie Bonfanti. This production played for a full month to standing-room crowds, and seems not to have created the furor in Albany as it had in New York City, despite the then-scandalous sight of women in tights.

The season of 1870-1871 included such stars as

• Joseph K. Emmett (who later built the mansion that became Wolfert’s Roost), playing “Fritz, Our Cousin German”

• Lotta (born Charlotte Mignon Crabtree)

• Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle
• Franceska Janauschek

 

Despite this glamorous season, Barnes was having financial problems. In late 1871, Mary Ann Trimble issued two additional mortgages on the property to allow Barnes to repay Charles E. Leland and Alexander Dickey “for money loaned, and work, labor and services, and material.” Another condition of Barnes’s’ lease was that he was to pay all taxes and water bills. He had failed to do so, and the Albany County Treasurer was threatening to sell the building at public auction if payment was not made.[xiii] Barnes’s financial problems were likely compounded by marital problems: Barnes and Ada Trimble were later divorced.[xiv]

By May 1872, Barnes was insolvent, and was declared bankrupt in July of that year,[xv] his only asset the value of his lease from Mrs. Trimble.[xvi] He left as manager on July 31, 1872, having taken gross receipts of almost $215,000 in the two and a half years of his lease.[xvii] In December 1872, Mrs. Trimble sold the property to Warren F. Leland (on behalf of his brother, Charles E. Leland, and Alexander Dickey, holders of the mortgages on the property), who leased it to Aaron Richardson,[xviii] and in May 1875 (avoiding complications of Richardson’s pending divorce) conveyed the premises to Richardson’s sister, Sarah Phillips, with a mortgage. Phillips soon failed to comply with the terms of the mortgage, and the theater was again in receivership.[xix]

Warren F. Leland purchased the theater from the receiver at public auction on May 6, 1876, paying $8,000 and assuming encumbrances of an additional $60,000.[xx] “Mr. Leland, as soon as he was handed the deed by the referee, proceeded to the Opera House, and took formal possession of it. Hereafter it will be known as the Leland Opera House…” [xxi]

[i] Albany County Clerk Deed Book 219, pages 207-208, dated 28 Nov 1868. “The Trimble Opera House: Its Legal History – The Curtain Rung Up on the Last Act – A Foreclosure Suit Commenced” Albany Evening Times Dec (probably 27) 1880.

[ii] “The New Academy of Music,” Albany Morning Express 19 Mar 1869.

[iii] “Meeting of the Corporation of the New Academy of Music,” Albany Morning Express, 29 Mar 1869.

[iv] H.P. Phelps, The Players of a Century (Albany: Joseph McDonough, 1880), 376.

[v] “Proctor Sells Leland,” New York Clipper, 21 Jun 1922.

[vi] Phelps, 376.

[vii] Phelps, 376.

[viii] “The Trimble Opera House: Its Legal History”.

[ix] Phelps, 376-377.

[x] “The Reception at the Trimble Opera House,” Albany Morning Express, 31 Dec 1869.

[xi] “Sudden Death,” Albany Morning Express 04 Jan 1870.

[xii] “’Lewey’ Underner – His Early Connection with the Orchestra of the Old Pearl Strreet Theatre.” Albany Morning Express 08 Mar 1868.

[xiii] “The Trimble Opera House,” Albany Evening Times 21 May 1872.

[xiv] Ada Trimble married twice more, both times to actors. A marriage to Harold Forsberg ended in divorce in 1884, after repeated reports of domestic abuse. [One incident is graphically described in the Daily Argus for 5 Jun 1874]. She married for the third and final time to Frederick Bryton in 1887. [“At the Theater,” Trenton Evening Times 16 Oct 1887]

[xv] “The Trimble Opera House: Its Legal History”.

[xvi] “Lucien Barnes’ Bankruptcy,” Daily Albany Argus, 2 Sep 1872.

[xvii] “H.R. Jacobs Opera House,” Albany Evening Times 17 Aug 1889

[xviii] “The Trimble Opera House: Its Legal History”

[xix] [“The Opera House: More Litigation – A Suit to Foreclose the Mortgage” Albany Evening Journal 30 Nov 1875.

[xx] “The Opera House Sold to Warren F. Leland,” Albany Morning Express 08 May 1876.

[xxi]  “The Opera House Sold to Warren F. Leland”.

After St. Paul’s sold its building on South Pearl Street to Hugh J. Hastings in October 1862, the building sat vacant for a year. In October 1863, Hastings announced that he had leased the theater to John M. Trimble for a period of ten years, with the right to purchase it after five years.[i]

It is [Trimble’s] intention to fit up the place in splendid style, regardless of expense, in order that it may be made worthy of the support and patronage of our citizens. Mr. T. proposes to introduce all the latest improvements; and in point of ornamentation and decoration to make it fully equal if not superior to any place of entertainment in New York, Boston or Philadelphia.[ii]

Trimble hoped to have the building ready by the holidays. Trimble certainly had the skills and experience for the task. He had built rebuilt the Bowery Theater in New York City in sixty days, and in his career had built, renovated or designed thirty-four theaters.[iii] Trimble had been blind for several years, so the task of drawing the plans fell to his colleague Thomas R. Jackson.[iv]

 

 

Two early accounts of the renovation of the building claim that when the church floor was removed, the pit and orchestra were found just as in the original theater, and a copy of the program from the final performance was recovered.[v] Given the scope of the 1839 renovation, it is hard to believe that that much of the original structure could have remained.

Just before the theater reopened on December 28, 1863, the Albany Morning Express gushed that Trimble,

as if possessed of the Lamp of Aladdin, … willed the transformation of old St. Paul’s Church into a fairy palace; and presto! the job is done, and done on a scale of liberality and magnificence that far more than realize the wildest expectations of the most exacting and fastidious; all that his vast and various experience, refined taste, and a lavish expenditure of money could produce are centered on this superb edifice.[vi]

The author of this article was also pleased that the new design included “no bar, saloon, or other depot of abomination.”[vii]

An early production at the new theater was a first for the city of Albany: the performance of fully-staged opera. In January 1864, the impresario Jacob Grau brought his company, Grand Italian Opera in America, to Albany, where it presented Lucrezia Borgia. “It was the first time a complete operatic performance, in costume, and with full orchestra, had ever been given in Albany.”[viii]

Later that year, in appreciation of his renovating the theater, Albany presented Trimble with a benefit performance, subsidized by a committee of prominent local figures, including Thurlow Weed, Erastus Dow Palmer, Albert B. Street, Erastus Corning, Jr. and John Tweddle. The resident company donated its service, as did the leading lady, Mary Provost.[ix]

 

 

 

 

 

Another highlight of this first season was the appearance of Edwin Forrest, who played in three Shakespeare plays, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth, in a single week. Forrest had first appeared at the Albany Theatre in 1825 when he was barely out of his teens. By 1864, he was an established star.[x]

The seasons of 1863 through 1867 were financially very successful, with average annual receipts of $15,000.[xi] But John M. Trimble’s health declined in the last year, and his daughter Ada G. Trimble assisted him. When John Trimble died in June 1867, the lease was assumed by his widow, Mary Trimble. Miss Trimble, then only about 24 years old, reluctantly agreed to take on the role of manager.[xii]

The Academy of Music’s 1867 season began on September 2, with Ada Trimble as manager.[xiii] In December of that year, the mortgage (presumably the mortgage on the sets, costumes and props) was paid in full.[xiv] On January 27 and 28, 1868, Charles Barron starred in Hilda, and was scheduled to perform the role the next night.[xv]

 

 

 

Early in the morning of January 29, 1868, a fire was reported in John Burk’s concert saloon, next door to the theater. The fire was contained, and soon thought to be out, but as the firemen were leaving, fire was discovered in the theater. Within half an hour, the entire building was in flames.[xvi] Later that day, a local newspaper reported that “the building was burned to the ground, with the exception of the front wall, which is all that now remains of the original structure of 1825.” Hastings, the owner of the building, had the entire value of the building covered by insurance. For the Trimble family, however, the loss was total.[xvii]

In our next segment, we will see how the theater rose from these ashes, this time known as the Trimble Opera House.

[i] “Fire This Morning,” Albany Evening Journal 29 Jan 1868.

[ii] “An Academy of Music,” Albany Morning Express, 13 Oct 1863.

[iii] “John M. Trimble, Architect and Theatrical Manager,” New York Times 9 Jun 1867, quoting the obituary from the Albany Evening Journal.

[iv] “Albany Academy of Music,” Albany Morning Express 22 Dec 1863.

[v] H.P. Phelps, The Players of a Century (Albany: Joseph McDonough, 1880), 216 and Collections of the History of Albany, Volume 2 (Albany: J. Munsell, 1867), 37.

[vi] “Albany Academy of Music”.

[vii] “Albany Academy of Music”.

[viii] Collections of the History of Albany, Volume 2 (Albany: J. Munsell, 1867), 182. A notice about plans for the engagement appeared in Albany Morning Express 22 Dec 1863. Grau’s obituary (New York Herald 15 Dec 1877) mentions that he was the manager for Isabella Hinckley, one-time soloist in St. Paul’s choir.

[ix] “Testimonial to John M. Trimble,” Albany Morning Express 15 Jun 1864; “Benefit of John M. Trimble, Esq.,” Albany Morning Express 18 Jun 1864; “Testimonial to John M. Trimble,” Albany Morning Express 20 Jun 1864

[x] “Academy of Music,” Albany Morning Express 27 Oct 1854.

[xi] “H.R. Jacobs Opera House,” Albany Evening Times 17 Aug 1889.

[xii] Jane Kathleen Curry, Nineteenth-century American Women Theatre Managers (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), 122.

[xiii] “H.R. Jacobs Opera House”.

[xiv] Collections of the History of Albany, 329-330.

[xv] Classified advertisement, Albany Morning Express 28 Jan 1868.

[xvi] “Fire This Morning”.

[xvii] “H.R. Jacobs Opera House”.

Local newspapers wrote the Leland movie theater’s obituary in the spring of 1965, with the headline “Curtains for Albany’s Oldest Theater”[i] A little less than a year later, the wrecking ball demolished its last remaining wall. The last photograph of the building, labeled “Last Days of a Landmark,”[ii] shows the building just before demolition, and briefly describes its past glories. The side and rear walls had already been demolished, and the marquee and fire escape removed, displaying, for the first time in that century, its graceful 1825 façade.

Most in Albany would know the theater in its last, sad state, showing salacious films at bargain prices. Few would remember its glory days, when the best of British and American actors played Shakespeare on its stage, when Charlie Chaplin performed some of his first comedy, or when it was early part F.F. Proctor’s chain of theaters. Certainly few Albanians would remember that this building had also housed St. Paul’s Church for almost a quarter of a century. Over the next several posts, we will tell a bit more of the story of this marvelous old building in its various forms, as the Albany Theatre, St. Paul’s Church, the Academy of Music, Trimble Opera House, Leland Opera House, Henry R. Jacobs Opera House, Proctor’s Leland Theater and finally simple The Leland.

 

In 1825, Albany had a population of 16,000. It was a city on the move, with the Erie Canal completed that year, and business already beginning a boom that would double the population by 1840. And the city had no theater. The first theater, on Green Street, had opened in 1813, but survived only five years. The city was again without a theater. In January 1824, a group of prominent businessmen formed a joint stock company, and raised subscriptions for a new theater, to be located on South Pearl Street. They hired Philip Hooker to design the building, and construction began in August 1824 on the west side of South Pearl Street, between Beaver and Hudson. [iii]

The Albany Theatre (sometimes called the Pearl Street Theatre) opened in May 1825, under the management of Charles Antonio Gilfert. Gilfert was manager for only one year, but that year was among the finest the theater was to have. The Albany audience saw the great Junius Brutus Booth, patriarch of the Booth theatrical family, in twelve different roles.

Booth ended the season with a week in which he took major roles in three Shakespeare plays. In this single week, June 17-24, 1825, he played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, the title role in Othello and Brutus in Julius Caesar.

Another star of the Gilfert period was Edmund Kean, “The Monarch of the British Stage,” who first appeared in the fall of 1825. Kean was joined by Edwin Forrest, then at the beginning of his career, but destined to become one of the great American Shakespeareans of his generation. Forrest perfected his craft here in Albany, playing in Shakespeare histories and tragedies with Kean: Othello (Kean in the title role, Forrest as Iago), Julius Caesar (Kean as Brutus, Forrest as Titus), and Richard III (with Kean again in the title role and Forrest as Richmond).[iv]

Forrest was only 20 years old, and quite a wild young man. He once escaped arrest by reciting Shakespeare to the Albany watchmen, known as leather-heads, who were trying to break up his party. He was not so lucky on a second occasion, and spent the night in another Hooker-designed building, the Albany Jail, located on the southeastern corner of Howard and Eagle Streets. The next morning, he was reprimanded by police justice John O. Cole, in words from Othello: “ – what’s the matter/ That you unlace your reputation thus,/And spend your rich opinion for the name/Of a night brawler? Give me answer to it!”[v]

Despite these stars, the seasons were not financial successes, and Gilfert resigned in May 1826.

The farewell benefits now began, and were, many of them, poorly attended. To show to what a strait even the best actors were reduced to fill the house, it may be noticed that for Forrest’s farewell benefit, Hyatt, the comedian, played Richard! Forrest supporting him as Buckingham! The season, having proved disastrous, closed May 2d, Gilfert being unable to pay his company, many of whom were left destitute. Forrest himself was forced to leave his wardrobe at his boarding-house, as security for arrearages, when he went to New York. As before stated, a majority of the company were re-engaged by Gilfert, when he opened the Bowery, October 23d, 1826.[vi]

Between Gilfert’s exit and 1829, a period of three years,the theater had eight managers, none of the them able to make a profit, despite a continuing string of well-known actors. The one manager we should mention is George Vernon (born George Verrall), who in addition to his acting and management skills, was also an artist. In the same period, he designed the ornate pulpit, screen and altar for St. Paul’s church on Ferry Street.[vii]

A somewhat more successful period was between 1829 and 1836, when William Duffy and William Forrest (brother of Edwin Forrest) managed the theater. This was interrupted by William Forrest’s death, and then finished by Duffy’s death in 1836 at the hands of one of his actors, John Hamilton, in a fight next door to the theater at the Rising Sun Tavern.[viii]

The downward spiral continued, with another five managers between 1836 and 1839. The final manager, H.W. Preston, carried on until early 1839, when the stockholders, tired of losing money every season, sold the building to St. Paul’s Church. The last performance, on March 30, 1829, was “The Hypocrite.” After the main attraction, the playbill also promised (in jest we assume) another offering: “After which, the interlude of H.W. Preston, The Manager in Distress.”[ix] The next day, Preston surrendered his lease to the Albany Theatre Association.

Despite the financial problems, The Albany Theatre featured some of the best of British and American actors. We have mentioned Booth, Kean and Forrest. But there were many other famous actors of the time who appeared in the Albany Theatre:

• Edwin Booth
• William Augustus Conway
• Thomas Apthorpe Cooper
• James Henry Hackett
• Thomas Hamblin
• Charles Kemble
• Fanny Kemble
• James Sheridan Knowles
• William Charles Macready

We will continue the story in our next post, as we see the theater came to be the home of St. Paul’s Church.

[i] Albany Knickerbocker News 30 Mar 1965.

[ii] Albany Times Union 3 Feb 1966.

[iii] A full description of the theater may be found in H.P. Phelps, The Players of a Century (Albany: Joseph McDonough, 1880), 63-64:

The new theatre is situated on the west side of Pearl street, extending to William; sixty-two feet front, one hundred and sixteen feet deep; height in front, forty feet; divided into a basement, principal and attic story. The entrance to the boxes is by three lofty arched openings; the piers and arches are of free stone, beautifully rusticated; they occupy three-fifths of the front; the entrances to the pit and gallery are on each side in plain brick work. Above the rusticated basement, the center is embellished with six stone pilasters, supporting an entablature and angular pediment; the pilasters are coupled at the angles, and the order is the antique Ionic; the cornice only is continued the whole length of the front, which is crowned with a bold balustrade, surmounted with appropriate acroteria. The outer lobby is entered by two steps, from which you are conducted by easy flights of winding stairs to a spacious corridor surrounding the first tier of boxes. Over the outer lobby in the second story is an elegant saloon or coffee room, with an adjoining chamber, and over these in the third story, are similar rooms for refreshments The auditory is divided into a pit and three tiers of boxes, the gallery being in the front of the third tier; the boxes advance one seat in front of the columns which support them; the second and third tiers are brought forward on arches springing from the capitals of the pillars. The ceiling is in the form of a dome, painted in stone-colored panels, with rosettes. The glass chandelier is to be lighted from above and lowered through the fret worked circlet in the centre of the dome. The proscenium and the panels of the boxes are to be splendidly ornamented. The stage is fifty-eight by fifty-two feet, above which are painting rooms, carpenters’ galleries, etc. An adjoining brick tenement contains a green-room and very comfortable dressing rooms. The whole is furnished in handsome style, and is somewhat larger than the Baltimore theatre. Mr. P. Hooker is architect, and Mr. Grain the scene painter. The probable cost, including lot, is about $25,000.

[iv]

The hard novitiate of Edwin Forrest was now drawing near its close. Securing a stock engagement with Charles Gilfert manager of the Albany Theatre he opened there in the early fall and played for the first time with Edmund Kean then on his second visit to America. The meeting with this extraordinary man and the attention he received from him were foremost among the directing influences of Forrest’s life. To his last hour he never wearied of singing the praises of Kean whose genius filled the English speaking world with admiration. Two men more unlike in mind and body can scarcely be imagined. Until now Forrest had seen no actor who represented in perfection the impassioned school of which Kean was the master. He could not have known Cooke even in the decline of that great tragedian’s power and the little giant was indeed a revelation. He played Iago to Kean’s Othello Titus to his Brutus and Richmond to his Richard III.

[Brandon Mathews and Laurence Hutton, Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States (New York: Cassell & Company 1886), 38]

 

[v] Players of a Century, 85-86.

[vi] Players of a Century, 103.

[vii] As described in Albany Gazette 25 Aug 1829:

The screen is 24 feet wide, supported by four octagonal gothic columns, in panel work, and rising about 18 feet from the chancel floor. The columns are finished at the top with pinnacles, ornamented and encircled with carved leaves and vines; in the centre of the screen and immediately over the pulpit, there rises a pediment supported by clustered columns and an arch; the pediment also surmounted with a richly ornamented pinnacle extending to the ceiling and standing in relief, in a niche prepared to receive it. The top of the screen and bases of the pinnacles are finished with castellated battlements, and the panel work in quatre foils.

[viii] We don’t know whether this sort of violence was typical of the Rising Sun. In 1863, a new bar, Oriental Palace Hall, opened in the same block. It was definitely a violent and seedy place. When it closed in 1874, the Daily Argus described it as a “vile den.” [Daily Argus 24 Oct 1874]

[ix] Players of a Century, 215-216.