CIVIC REPERATORY THEATER
105 West 14th Street
JULY 2, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 138

The Civic Repertory Theater, which opened in 1866 as the Théâtre Française, featured French drama and Italian opera through the 1870s, when 14th Street was the center of the city's theater district. As the district moved north, the old theater's fortunes waned. In 1926, Eva Le Gallienne reopened it as the Civic Repertory to produce classic revivals and new plays at low prices. When Le Gallienne's company failed in 1932, the Labor Theatre took its place, producing plays with social themes, until 1935, when it closed. The building's facade reflects its varied history: the cast-iron portico was built in 1871, and the zigzagged fire escapes and suspended marquee were added after 1900.

Abbott made three exposures of this composition, choosing one with a bootblack waiting for customers under the marquee. In all, she photographed four nineteenth-century theaters in the old theater district (see Grand Opera House, Fifth Avenue Theater and Irving Place Side), probably anticipating their imminent destruction. In October 1936, operators of a motion picture chain bought the Civic Repertory Theater and tore it down two years later with plans for a new movie house, which was never built. The site was subsequently used for a skating arena, parking lot, and retail store until 1974, when a six-story apartment house was built.

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