performing in other venues, includ- ing town halls and courtrooms, in the Charleston area. Some people claim that Dock
Street is the oldest theater in Ameri- ca. However, according to an article written about the Dock Street The- atre and published in The New York Times on Nov. 21, 1937, a theater in Williamsburg, Virginia, might have been built in 1716. Based on various historical sources, Charleston’s oldest theater is certainly among the three oldest in the New World. Other less important questions
persist about the Dock Street The- atre. Near the top of that list might be its name; after all, it’s located on the corner of Queen Street and Church Street. In fact, Queen Street was originally named Dock Street because it was at the end of an inlet that entered the peninsula from the Cooper River. Robert Johnson, the Colonial governor of South Caroli- na, had the name changed to Queen Street by an act of Assembly dated April 9, 1734, to honor the wife of King George II. But does that expla- nation make sense? Didn’t we already establish that the theater wasn’t built until 1736? It seems that even after the name of the street was changed, locals still referred to it as Dock Street, so that’s the moniker that was attached to the new theater. Additional questions have arisen
Street in which will be perform’d [sic] ‘The Recruiting Officer. ...” The star of the play was known
simply as Monimia, the female leader of a company of actors that had been
over the evolution of the theater in the 18th century. According to some sources, the building burned down and was replaced two or three times in the 1740s. But another source claims it was not destroyed by fire and was in fact offered for sale in 1749. Regardless of which story is factual, the famous Planters Hotel was built on the present-day site in 1806, then remodeled in 1835 to resemble the building we see today. The Planters Hotel, described by
historian Emmett Robinson, was “the principal hostel for the city, a
rendezvous of gentleman and ladies in the opulent plantation days.” It was even dubbed the “Planters Punch” because of its reputation for serving various wines and liquors. The hotel surely was a hallmark of antebellum society in Charleston. However, it shared the fate of many other Southern landmarks after the Civil War. During the Reconstruc- tion period, the building fell into disrepair but was revived in 1937 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Federal Emergency Relief Administration program. For years prior, many citizens of
Charleston called for the building to be restored. In a letter to the editor of a local newspaper, a plea from one Annie L. Sloan read: “Beauty crumbles in its tottering
walls, history pleads from its shat- tered windows through which have looked the great, the beautiful, the wise of the days that were rich in history and picturesque life, the days in which was well begun, by people who live but in memory, much that we prize, much that adds charm and culture to our city today. “Could the old walls talk they
could thrill us with the thousand and one nights of luxury, feasting and tragedy which they sheltered. Much they saw, much they knew of mad life and hot blood. From lumbering coaches, drawn by blooded horses, stepped down the pride, intellect, wealth and beauty of old Carolina planters with their families to attend the races on the Washington Race
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