1938

Manhattan: Broadway - 28th Street (West).

Broadway, at the N.W. corner of West 28th Street, showing that side of the former Fifth Avenue Theatre, facing on the latter thoroughfare. This structure was the fourth playhouse to bear this name. It replaced its name sake, burned January 2, 1891. The present (and last) house opened May 28, 1892 with the production "The Robber of the Rhine." Its predecessor was built by the Gilsey estate in 1873 on the site of a building which opened October 16, 1868 as Apollo Hall and was variously known as Newcomb's Hall and the St. James Theatre. Mary Anderson made her New York debut here, November 12, 1877, Modjeska on December 22, 1877, and Mrs. James Brown Potter on October 31, 1887. The first authorized performance in America the Gilbert and Sullivan opera "The Mikado" was given September 24, 1885. Demolition occurred in 1939 and a 1 story taxpayer erected on the Broadway frontage. November 2, 1938 Berenice Abbott, photo Federal Art Project

Photo from the New York Public Library - Milstein Collection