Norman's New Orleans and Environs / Containing a Brief Historical Sketch of the Territory and State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time

by Benjamin Moore Norman

At the commencement of the holidays, the city begins to put on a gay aspect. Visitors, from all parts of the habitable globe, have arrived, either on business or pleasure. A general round of balls, masquerades, soirées and parties begin, and are continued without intermission during the season. Theatres and operas, with their stars and prima donnas, circuses and menageries, bell-ringers and serenaders, are in full success—and New Orleans, filled with every description of amusement, from the top of the drama down to Judy and Punch. Strangers are surprised and delighted at the splendor that is carried out in these circles of pleasure. Our present object, however, is merely to describe the most conspicuous places of public resort.

ORLEANS THEATRE

The site of this building was occupied by an edifice erected for dramatic performances in 1813, somewhat on the plan of the one now existing. This, which was built by a joint stock company, was burnt to the ground in 1816. Mr. John Davis afterwards became the sole proprietor, and began the erection of the present theatre.

The building was opened by the first dramatic corps, ever in Louisiana directly from France, in November, 1819. The total cost of the edifice was about $180,000. The lower story is of the Roman Doric order, certainly not a pure specimen. The upper is what may be called the Corinthian composite. The interior and scenic arrangements of the house are excellent for seeing and hearing, having a pit, or parquette, quite elevated and commodious, with grated boxes at the side for persons in mourning; two tiers of boxes, and one of galleries above; the whole being of such a form as to afford the greatest accommodation to the spectators.

Nothing can exceed the decorum of the audience, except the brilliancy of the dress circle, which, on certain occasions, is completely filled with the beautiful ladies of our city, in full evening costume. The performances are in the French language, and the stock company always respectable. The orchestra is excellent. Melodramas and operas are perfectly got up at this house. The strict adherence to nature and history, in costume and manners, will never fail to please the man of taste who visits the Orleans theatre.

THE NEW ST. CHARLES THEATRE

Like the phœnix, literally arose from the ashes of its predecessor. The first house was erected by the sole exertions of James H. Caldwell, Esq., in 1835, at the cost of $250,000, exclusive of the ground. It occupied one hundred and twenty-nine feet front by one hundred and eighty-six deep, and was seventy-six high. It held four thousand people, and was the fourth in size in the world—one at St. Petersburg, in Russia, another at Pescala, in Milan, and the third at San Carlos, in Naples, were those only which excelled it in size. It was destroyed by fire in 1842. That structure was styled "the Temple of the Drama," and the city had good reason to be proud of such an ornament.

The present building has a front of seventy-nine feet on St. Charles street, extends back one hundred and forty-nine, and is fifty-three high. The main entrance and front wall are remains of the former establishment; which, from the substantial workmanship, resisted the conflagration so effectually as to be made available the second time. Passing this memento, the spectator finds himself in the vestibule, thirty-four by twenty-three feet, from which a double flight of geometrically formed stairs ascend to the first tier. Here the pit is seen in a semi-circular shape. The centre box is but fifty-one feet from the foot lights, which brings the audience within a convenient distance of the stage. The depth of the front boxes to the rear is twenty-one feet. The proscenium presents an elevation of thirty-nine feet in the clear, by fifty in width. The upper circles of boxes possess the like advantage of the first, in respect to a distinct view of the performances.

The fronts of the boxes consist of an open balustrade, producing a novel, and agreeable effect. The dome is ornamented with sunken panels, suitably embellished with emblematic devices. A golden-fringed national drapery falls from the proscenium, displaying an ingeniously contrived allegory in the centre. Four columns sustain an ornamented entablature above, composed of a mixed style of architecture, and copied after those of the celebrated temple of Benares.