Cherry Lane Theater

By Tours of 1930s NYC

Cherry Lane Theater This photograph was taken from the 1940s tax department photography. The theater had been open for several years at the point of the picture. Source: New York City Municipal Archives Date: 1939-1941

"Near the bend of Commerce Street is the Cherry Lane Theater, a converted barn, which, in the postwar period, served the experimental New Playwrights group. A group of two-story-and-dormer houses, near Bedford and Commerce Streets, dates from the early nineteenth century. Said to be the narrowest house in New York (NYC Guide, pp. 142)."

Cherry Lane Theater is New York City's oldest running off-broadway theater, located in Greenwich Village. It was converted into a 250-seat theater in 1924 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and the Provincetown Players (Encyclopedia, pp 237). Previously, the building was constructed for a farm silo, then used as a tobacco warehouse and box factory (Wikipedia, 2024).

Some off-broadway shows performed in the 1930s were Dracula, Trojan Women, and The Phantom. Most productions were directed or played by Paul Gilmore, a popular stage actor who owned and managed the Cherry Lane Theater during its opening times. His daughter Virginia also played an important role in its success (Cherry Lane Theater, accessed July 27, 2024).

This theater was a big source of live entertainment during the 1930s and to this day, a century later, the place is still up and running for those to see.