Barnum's American Museum
Broadway and Ann Street, New York, NY
Built
1841
Closed
1865
Demolished
1865
ABOUT THIS THEATRE
Description
P.T. Barnum bought Scudder's Museum for $12,000 and created a show place for freaks and curiosities, including a lecture room, which was transformed (in 1849) into a theatre. After a successful production, he transformed the lecture room into a three thousand seat playhouse in 1850. In 1865, it burned down and Barnum sold the site to the New York Herald for an office building.