The Richmond Theatre was the name of four theatres located in Richmond, Virginia, in the United States. The first theatre was originally established in 1786 as the Academy of Fine Arts and Sciences of the United States or Quesnay's Academy. It was renamed the Richmond Theatre after it came under the management of Thomas Wade West and John Bignall. It was destroyed by fire in 1798. The second Richmond Theatre opened in 1806 on the same site and was destroyed by fire in 1811.Stoutamire, p. 103 The 1811 Richmond Theatre fire is considered a significant disaster in the history of the city, and was described by historian Meredith Henne Baker as "early America's first great disaster".
The third Richmond Theatre opened in 1819 on a different site. After being remodeled in 1838, the theatre re-opened as the Marshall Theatre. It too was destroyed by fire, in 1862. The Marshall Theatre was rebuilt on the same foundation and re-opened in 1863. It was originally called the New Marshall Theatre during construction, but was ultimately branded the New Richmond Theatre soon after it opened. It became a significant cultural center for the Confederate south during the American Civil War. By the time this fourth and final structure was demolished in 1896 it was known as the Richmond Theater. The various theatres known as the Richmond and Marshall theatres were the leading performance venues in Richmond for the majority of the 19th century.Stoutamire, p. 259
First Richmond Theatre, originally Quesnay's Academy (1786–1798)
The first Richmond Theatre was originally intended to be not only a theatre, but a school, museum, and art gallery housed collectively under the name of the Academy of Fine Arts and Sciences of the United States. The idea for this organization originated with the French scholar and soldier Chevalier Alexandre-Marie Quesnay de Beaurepaire who had come to the United States in March 1777 to fight in the American Revolutionary War. Quesnay intended to create an American organization modeled after the French Academy of Sciences (also known as the National Institute of Sciences and Arts).
After nearly a decade of advocacy by Quesnay, a three and a quarter acre plot of land was purchased for 300 pounds from John Turpin on May 20, 1786, through funds raised through subscription to Quesnay's Academy. This land was located at the brow of Shockoe Hill. At the time, the main road on Shockoe Hill did not extend to the property, and as part of the land sale agreement, Turpin paid for the extension of the road and the creation of Academy Square where Quesnay's Academy was to be constructed. The cornerstone of the building was laid by Richmond's Masonic Lodge No. 13 on June 24, 1786. The building's cornerstone was placed at the Northeast corner of the building. The front of the building was situated on what is now 12th street, and was located at what is now the intersection of 12th and Broad just north of Capitol Square. () The academy was built with a "barn-like wooden structure".
Quesnay's Academy (QA) opened on October 10, 1786, in a performance given by the Old American Company of Comedians under the management of Lewis Hallam Jr. and John Henry. Sources vary as to which work was performed on this date, with some sources claiming it was the opera Poor Soldier and others the play School for Scandal. Regardless, sources agree that the repertoire of Hallam and Henry's season in Richmond included the stage works Poor Soldier, School for Scandal, and Alexander the Great ; or , the Rival Queens.
Quesnay's dream of an institution mirroring that of the French Academy of Sciences was short lived. Social prejudices against the morality of the theatre made operations of such an institution challenging, and he was forced to publicly make it clear that there was separation between the scholars studying at the QA and the visiting theatre troupes utilizing the QA's theatre. Quesnay himself taught dance classes at the academy, but by December 1887 Quesnay's Academy ceased operation.
Theatre managers Thomas Wade West and John Bignall took over the QA, and made significant alterations to the QA and its theatre. It was renamed the Richmond Theatre, and at this time Academy Square became known as Theatre Square. West and Bignall continued to operate the theatre until it was destroyed by fire on January 23, 1798.
Quesnay's theatre building had a capacity of 1600 people The Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788 was held there beginning on June 2 for three weeks, after having begun previously at a smaller structure at Cary and fourteenth streets then temporarily serving as Virginia's capitol building. Among the many individuals in attendance were James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Nicholas, Edmund Randolph, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry.Weddell, Alexander Willbourne. Southern Churchman, January 9, 1932.
Second Richmond Theatre (1806–1811) Operational and performance history
The second Richmond Theatre was built on the same site as the first theatre, and was erected through the advocacy of John Marshall who was serving as Chief Justice of the United States at the time of the theatre's construction. Through Marshall's efforts, the funds to build this theatre were raised through subscription and construction on the theatre began in 1804.Stoutamire, p. 104 This second theatre was made from brick instead of wood and stood three stories high. It opened on January 25, 1806, and was referred to in the Richmond Enquirer as both the "New Theatre" and the "Richmond Theatre". It was financially profitable during its five-year history.
The second Richmond Theatre was initially inhabited by the West and Bignall theatre company. One of the early plays staged at the theatre in 1806 included William Dunlap's English language version of Jean-Henri-Ferdinand Lamartelière's 1799 play Abelino ou le Grand Bandit (English: Abaellino, the Great Bandit), a work often misattributed to Friedrich Schiller. The theatre was then taken over by a company led by Thomas Abthorpe Cooper whose first appearance in Richmond was in the title role of William Shakespeare's Hamlet in April 1806. Cooper performed several more parts at the Richmond Theatre in the following months, among them Rolla in August von Kotzebue's The Virgin of the Sun; the gambler Beverly in Edward Moore's The Gamester; Pierre in Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd; and the title roles in several more Shakespeare plays, including Othello, Macbeth, and Richard III.
Other works performed at the Richmond Theatre in 1806 included the plays Speed the Plough (1806) by Thomas Morton, The Irishman in London by William Macready the Elder, The Sailor's Daughter by Richard Cumberland; and the ballad opera The Devil to Pay by Charles Coffey and John Mottley.
Richmond Theatre fire of 1811
The Richmond Theatre was destroyed by fire on December 26, 1811, in what historian Meredith Henne Baker described as "early America's first great disaster". The fire broke out during a benefit performance held in honor of the French actor Alexander Placide and his daughter, actress Jane Placide. The repertoire for that evening included two full-length plays as well as four musical works performed by the theatre's orchestra between the plays. The first play was Denis Diderot's comedy Le Père de famille given in an English language translation entitled The Father; or, Family Feuds by Louis Hue Girardin who was then principal of the Hallerian Academy and was formerly a professor of modern languages at the College of William & Mary.
The second play given was Matthew Gregory Lewis's melodrama Raymond and Agnes; or, the Bleeding Nun which also incorporated aspects of British pantomime.Baker, p. 25 After the first act of this second play, a chandelier with lit candles was raised by one of the stage hands, and it swung and caught fire to the backdrop which was made of paper. The fire spread across the ceiling of the building and set the roof ablaze. Within ten minutes the fire had spread throughout the building.
The audience in the Richmond Theatre on the night of the fire totaled more than 600 people, and the building had only three exits, causing congestion as people tried to flee through the theatre's three exits. John Marshall was one of several men living close to the theatre who left their homes to attempt to rescue people from the burning theatre. A minimum of 76 people died in the fire, making it the most deadly urban disaster in the history of the United States up to that point in time. Several prominent Virginia citizens died in the fire, including Virginia's governor George William Smith;Baker, p. IX former United States Senator Abraham B. Venable; lawyer Benjamin Botts who defended Aaron Burr during his conspiracy trial; and Mary Clay, the daughter of congressman Matthew Clay.
Monumental Church stands on the former site of the Richmond Theatre. Built between 1812 and 1814, the church contains a crypt where 72 victims from the Richmond Theatre fire are buried.
Third Richmond Theatre, also known as Marshall Theatre (1819–1862) Third Richmond Theatre
Operational history After the devastating 1811 fire, there was tremendous opposition to rebuilding of a theatre in Richmond, and in general there was a wave of opposition against theatrical enterprises that extended across America in the years immediately following that disaster. Construction on a new theatre did not begin until seven years later when Christopher Tompkins was successful at convincing the public to allow him to build a theatre for a stock company. Tompkins sold the property he owned at the southeast corner lot on Seventh and H (later called Broad) Streets () to the English-born actor Joseph George Holman with the intent that Holman would build a theatre for his company on the property. However, Holman died in 1817, the year construction on the theatre began.
The building of the third Richmond Theatre was done by what was called "subscription", where a group of individuals would invest money in the theatre and essentially own stock in the theatre enterprise. A total of 104 investors, most of them local to Richmond, owned shares in the theatre with approximately $40,000.00 worth of shares sold. Many of them were prominent citizens of Virginia, including Virginia's governor William H. Cabell, justice John Marshall, journalist Thomas Ritchie, and banker James Rawlings (ca. 1788–1838) who was president of the Farmers’ Bank of Virginia. The business side of the theatre was run by a board elected by the shareholders, with Ritchie elected as the board's first chairman. The board was responsible for leasing the building and the initial lessee was the South Carolina composer and theatre manager Charles Gilfert (1787–1829) Gilfert was also an investor in the theatre and was married to actress Amelia Holman Gilfert, the daughter of the aforementioned Joseph George Holman, who had inherited her father's financial investments into the enterprise. She starred in many productions at the theatre after it opened in 1819.
The third Richmond Theatre was a more spacious building than its predecessors, and Gilfert was careful to advertise the many doors extant in the new theatre's design as to make quick exits possible in light of public fears after the 1811 fire. It opened on June 11, 1819. There were still public fears over fire, particularly in regards to a structure next door to the theatre that was viewed by the public as a fire hazard. Accordingly, that property was purchased by the governing board of the Richmond Theatre shortly after it opened, and it was razed in order to alleviate public concerns over another fire.Baker, p. 234