THE AMERICAN THEATRE
Burnt on the 30th of July, 1842, was rebuilt and reopened on the 5th of December following, at a cost of $28,000. The building is ninety by one hundred and fifty feet, and sufficiently elevated for all the purposes of the drama, but irregular in its altitude. The depth of the stage is sixty feet, and the width of the proscenium thirty-eight. The house will accommodate over fifteen hundred persons. It stands near Lafayette square, on Poydras street; and, from its isolated position, presents quite an imposing appearance.
THE CIRCUS
The company have fitted up the old depôt of the Carrolton rail-road, situated on the corner of Poydras and Baronne streets, as a place for exhibiting feats of horsemanship. As the buildings possess no especial interest beyond these performances, they require no particular description—but as this amusement has an attraction for almost every class of visitors, not to have referred to it might have been deemed an inexcusable oversight. There is a stage attached to this establishment; and farces and the ballet relieve the monotony of the sports of the ring.
THE PUBLIC SQUARES
Although the public squares in New Orleans are neither numerous, nor upon a very extended scale, they are located with good taste, and are exceedingly convenient. The centres of Canal, Esplanade, Rampart and Basin streets have a very considerable space set apart for embellishments. Shrubbery, and other ornaments, are in progress, and they already begin to assume a beauty that does much credit to the city authorities. Nothing is more conducive to health than these pleasant resorts for wholesome exercise. Here the toil-worn citizen, the wearied scholar, and the confined artizan, may breathe the fresh air, enjoy a delightful morning or evening promenade, and catch an imaginary enjoyment, in miniature, of the blessed country.
Washington Square is in the third municipality; is bounded by the Elysian Fields, Great-Men's, Casa Calvo and Frenchmen streets.—Though admirably situated, owing to the distance it stands from the denser portion of the city, it has not yet received those attentions which, at some future day, will render it a beautiful promenade.
Place d'Armes, or Parade Square, is still more prominent, and is embellished with fine trees; but, as it is in the centre of the first municipality, with the public buildings on one front and the levee on the other, it is a matter of surprise that it has not been improved in a style worthy of the inhabitants; who, certainly are capable of appreciating the advantages of such delightful grounds.