Gramercy Arts Theatre
138 East 27th Street | Gramercy | built 1920
Open on the map3 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1914
The house becomes "Manhattan's tiniest theatre"
Owner Max Goebel leases the mid-19th-century townhouse to touring troupe leader Benjamin Butler Davenport in October 1914. Renovations finished by spring 1915 convert the building, previously home to a Welsh Baptist congregation and a Spiritualist "temple," into a 225-seat playhouse with an indirect lighting scheme framed by French windows.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1931
Benjamin Butler Davenport saves his theatre from foreclosure
As the Depression empties seats, owner-manager Benjamin Butler Davenport fends off foreclosure of his playhouse through public appeals for donations and eventually drops admission charges altogether, running it as the Davenport Free Theatre. He continues presenting Moliere and Maugham there until his death in 1958.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1972
Repertorio Espanol moves into the former Bromhall Playhouse
The Spanish-language theater company Repertorio Espanol, founded in 1968 by producer Gilberto Zaldivar and director Rene Buch, relocates to the small East 27th Street playhouse in 1972 and renames it the Gramercy Arts Theatre. The company still owns and performs in the building today.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Repertorio EspañolWikipedia
- The Bromhall Playhouse -- 138 East 27th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
Nearby
- Jazz Standard116 East 27th Street | 4 entries
- 69th Regiment Armory68 Lexington Avenue | 12 entries
- Chester A. Arthur Home123 Lexington Avenue | 16 entries
- St. Stephen's Church (Our Lady of the Scapular-St. Stephen)141 East 28th Street | 8 entries
- Hotel Giraffe365 Park Avenue South | 2 entries
- St. Illuminator's Armenian Apostolic Cathedral221 East 27th Street | 5 entries