(Theatrical History) A 6 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. (on a 9 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. mount) photograph by The H. N. Tiemann Company of New York showing the now defunct Central Park Garden on Seventh Avenue near 58th Street which served as a venue for classical music in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The music hall opened in 1868 and for some time was controlled by the opulent financier James Fisk. Standing on the west side of Seventh Avenue between 58th and 59th Street, the Garden offered a restaurant together with nighty concerts in the summer months in an open air “promenade” or “garden” in the rear of the theater. Appleton’s Illustrated Hand-book of American Cities declared that the concerts held at the Garden were “musical entertainments of the highest order.” In 1876 the proprietors of the Garden purchased a larger building (in this image the building just to the left of the three story building bearing the “CENTRAL PARK GARDEN” sign on its roof), and the venue began hosting more diverse events including dramas and natural history lectures. The building remained in use as a music hall until the late 1880s when it became the Central Park Riding Academy. The buildings were demolished in 1921 to make way for Jolson’s 59th Street Theatre, constructed by Lee and J.J. Shubert and named after Al Jolson, who premiered Sigmund Romberg’s musical Bombo there on 6 October 1921. The next several years brought a slew of new owners and consequent name changes to the venue, including the Central Park Theatre (a movie house), the Shakespeare Theatre, the Molly Picon Theatre, the Venice Theatre, The Yiddish Theatre, and twice reverted to honoring the theatre’s original namesake, Al Jolson, before relaunching as the New Century Theatre in 1944. The New Century Theatre was shuttered in 1954, and demolished in 1963 to accommodate the site’s current occupant, the luxury residence 200 Central Park South.

Some toning and soiling toward margins and on mount, else very good overall.

(EXA 3898) $400