Winter Garden Theatre (1850)

[3] Four months later on April 14th, 1865, John Wilkes Booth fatally shot 16th President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C., while shouting the historic words of senator Brutus in ancient Rome, upon joining in the murder of Julius Caesar.

She arrived to great fanfare and a reported gathering of over 40,000 (all arranged by her manager, the famed promoter (and later circus founder / owner), Phineas Taylor ("P.T.")

"[9] In February 1852, a memorial service was held at Tripler Hall for James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), the renowned American author / novelist.

Senator Daniel Webster (1782-1852), of Massachusetts presided, and eulogies were said by fellow literary figures Washington Irving (1783-1859), and William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878).

When the theatre was used for the American Art-Union Prizes Distribution, a report in the famed British newspaper, The Illustrated London News in London, England, described the event and the interior of Tripler Hall: Never - not even on the nights of the "Nightingale" - has the capacity of Tripler Hall been more fully booked than the evening appointed for the distribution of the Art Union prizes.

[12] Here the leading female impresario of New York produced an eclectic form of entertainment which she would perfect in subsequent productions such as the musical Seven Sisters five years later.

Among Boucicault's stable of first-rung actors were Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905), Agnes Kelly Robertson (1833-1916), and Mrs. John Wood (born Matilda Charlotte Vining, 1831-1915).

"[19] That winter, on December 5 of 1859, Boucicault premiered one of his most popular - and controversial - melodramas The Octoroon, subtitled "Life in Louisiana", which he had adapted from the novel The Quadroon by Thomas Mayne Reid (1818-1883).

The Octoroon, dealing with people of mixed white and African heritage, caused nothing short of a sensation, to see on the stage a drama that provoked discussions about race and politics.

On February 21, 1863, Edwin Booth (1833-1893), took on the management of the Winter Garden Theatre (together with his brother-in-law, John Sleeper Clarke, 1833-1899) with the intention of shifting the focus from musicals and burlesques to classical dramas.

This enterprise included a toga-clad, one-night production of Julius Caesar on the evening of November 25, 1864, Evacuation Day holiday (New York City celebration, marking the leaving of the seven years occupying British Army from the town at the end of the American Revolutionary War, after the signing / ratification of the Treaty of Paris earlier in 1783), played by Edwin and his brothers, John Wilkes Booth and Junius Brutus Booth Jr.[3] The goal of staging the 16th century play Julius Caesar for just one night was to raise funds for the erection of a sculpted bronze statue of William Shakespeare designed by sculptor/artist John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910), in the decade-old new Central Park on the northern outskirts (then) of Manhattan.

As their mother watched on from a box on the aisle, the three Booth brothers reenacted the tragedy of Julius Caesar before an audience in The Winter Garden Theatre that was "packed to the rafters.

About a half-hour into the performance, during the first scene of Act Two, when Brutus was pacing in his orchard, contemplating his pending assassination of Caesar, the clang and clatter of horse-drawn fire engines could be heard from the street outside.

There was only the usual number of policemen and watchmen in attendance, and the panic was such for a few moments that it seemed as if all the audience believed the entire building was in flames, and just ready to fall upon their devoted heads.

[32] After President Lincoln’s assassination on April 14, 1865, older brother Edwin Booth went int a self-imposed retirement and privately asked successor 17th President Andrew Johnson for his younger brother's body remains and had him quietly buried at the Booth family plot at the historic Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, in an unmarked grave later that year of 1865.

The site was then occupied by the Grand Central Hotel, and is today the location for the New York University School of Law's Mercer Street Residence.

Drawing of interior of large concert hall, crowded with formally dressed people, mostly men. There are two balconies. The main floor has no seats, so attendees are standing. The stage is crowded with male participants in a formal ceremony.
Interior of Tripler Hall, 1850. In 1854 it burned down and was replaced by The New York Theatre, which was renamed The Winter Garden Theatre by the impresario Dion Boucicault after extensive remodeling in 1859.
The so-called "Jenny Lind Hall" , detail from a poster of 1850 before the concert hall was finished. [ 5 ]
On Mercer Street. The theatre burned to the ground on January 8, 1854 and was replaced by a new theatre structure that same year.
Laura Keene's Variety Theatre, 1856
The Octoroon , Act IV, (1859). The premiere of this controversial melodrama became the " sensation " of the entertainment season of 1859. (Compliments of Special Collections, Templeman Library, University of Kent , Kent , England , United Kingdom ). [ 16 ]
Performing the William Shakespeare play Julius Caesar from the 16th century , at the Winter Garden Theatre , in Manhattan , New York City ; with famed acting Booth family brothers: John Wilkes Booth , Edwin Booth , and Junius Brutus Booth Jr. , November 25, 1864.
Distributed handbill / poster for the one-night benefit performance of William Shakespeare 's 16th century play Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theatre , Manhattan , New York City , November 25, 1864, with acting greats of Booth family brothers: Junius Brutus Booth Jr. , Edwin Booth , and John Wilkes Booth
Edwin Booth as Hamlet at the Winter Garden Theatre, 1864
Set design for Edwin Booth 's famous acclaimed production of the Merchant of Venice , of Act IV, Scene 1, An Apartment in Portia's House, January 1867, by Charles Witham.
Poster of Jenny Lind 's first engagement in New York. The theatre was named "Jenny Lind Hall", before it was finished.