It was the second theater in Finland after Bonuviers Teater in Åbo, and the first theatre in Helsinki.
It was located on Esplanaden at the intersection with Mikaelsgatan and was the predecessor of the Swedish Theatre.
The building was a small wooden house designed by Carl Ludvig Engel in the corner of the Esplanadi.
On 8 February 1833, the theatre company of Carl Wilhelm Westerlund performed the play Finska flickan eller Hittebarnet på kyrkogården, in which Maria Silfvan sang a few lines in Finnish, likely the first time the Finnish language had been performed on a Finnish stage, decades prior to Charlotte Raa-Winterhjelm in Aleksis Kivi's Lea in 1869.
[2] The building was eventually deemed to be too small, and was replaced by the Swedish Theatre.