The play debuted at McVicker's Theater in Chicago on May 23, 1892, initially under the title Shore Acres Subdivision.

In February 1893, the play opened as Shore Acres at the Boston Museum, where it ran for several months.

Following the play's success in Boston, Henry C. Miner staged it on Broadway, where it opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre on October 30, 1893.

[4] The New-York Tribune reviewer disliked Herne's use of theatrical realism, saying the play was dull and filled with an "interminable mass of insipidities and platitudes".

[5] The reviewer for The Sun thought parts of the play were boring, but overall it was "an excellent work".