Niblo's Garden was a theater on Broadway and Crosby Street, near Prince Street, in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City.The name Niblo's Garden was used for more than a decade at the turn of the 20th century in association with a Bronx entertainment hall at Third Avenue and 170th Street that was later called the Bronx Lyceum.

It was established in 1823 as Columbia GardenArthur Hornblow, A History of the Theatre in America from its beginnings to the present time 1919:96. which in 1828 gained the name of the Sans Souci and was later the property of the coffeehouse proprietor and caterer William Niblo. The large theater that evolved in several stages, occupying more and more of the pleasure ground, was twice burned and rebuilt. On September 12, 1866, Niblo's saw the premiere of The Black Crook, considered to be the first piece of musical theater that conforms to the modern notion of a "book musical".

Evolution of the building site William Niblo built Niblo's Theater in 1834Hornblow. after having opened a "resort" which at first only served coffee, ice cream, lemonade and other refreshments. At the time, New York was undergoing a construction boom that was extending clusters of buildings much past the locale of City Hall. The garden, surrounded by a plain board fence, covered the block bounded by Prince, Houston, Broadway and Crosby Streets; in the center was the open-air saloon, used also for musical entertainments. In the evenings, Niblo's Garden was illuminated with hundreds of colored-glass lanterns. A separate garden entrance was on Broadway. The refreshment hall was in a pair of rowhouses near the southeast corner of the gardens.Abram Child Dayton, Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York, :303ff.

The site was once a part of the Bayard farm. It was sold in lots and purchased by Jeremiah Van Rensselaer. Prior to Niblo's acquisition of the land, a circus called the Stadium occupied the ground. There was a high fence around it. New Yorkers considered it a beautiful drive up to Niblo's through neighboring suburban market gardens.

Niblo decided to supplement the refreshments with more extensive entertainment. He erected the Grand Saloon, a small theater or concert hall. The program consisted solely of musical selections until vaudeville was introduced some time later. The admission to the garden in August 1829 was fifty cents, sufficient to keep out the riff-raff. During the afternoon and evening, stagecoaches ran there from the City Hotel, later the location of the Boreel Building at 115 Broadway.

In 1835, Niblo's Garden hosted P. T. Barnum's first-ever exhibition, marking his entry into show business.Goodman 120. In 1845, the Hutchinson Family Singers included in their sold-out performance here their abolitionist song "Get Off the Track".John Wallace Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons (Tribe of Jesse), 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), p. 138; Roberts, Brian, "'Slavery Would Have Died of That Music': The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Rise of Popular-Culture Abolitionism in Early Antebellum-Era America, 1842-1850." Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. 306-07(2006).

During the summer of 1837, a vaudeville company was formed at Niblo's by Joseph Judson and Joseph Sefton. Farces like Promotion of the General's Hat and Meg Young Wife and Old Umbrella, played there. By the mid-19th century, the theatre was considered New York's most fashionable theatre.

Second Niblo's Garden The first theater at Niblo's Garden was destroyed by a fire on September 18, 1846. It was not reopened until the summer of 1849. The theatre seated approximately 3,200 people and had the best-equipped stage in the city. Italian opera began to be produced there around 1850. Seats were sold at $2 each. Niblo's began to draw the most popular actors and plays. Some of the many players who performed there were E. L. Davenport, William Wheatley, Bennett Barrow, and Maggie Mitchell. In 1855, Niblo convinced the tightrope walker Charles Blondin to come to America and appear at the Garden.

In the late 1860s, as post-Civil War business boomed, there was a sharp increase in the number of working- and middle-class people in New York, and these more affluent people sought entertainment. Theaters became more popular, and Niblo's began to offer light comedy. It mounted The Black Crook (1866), considered by many scholars to be the first musical comedy. This was followed by The White Fawn (1868), Le Barbe Blue (1868) and Evangeline (1874). In April 1850, the theatre presented the U.S. premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Macbeth with Angiolina Bosio as Lady Macbeth.

Third Niblo's Garden and final days The theater was again destroyed by fire in 1872. It was rebuilt by the department-store magnate A. T. Stewart.

The final performance at Niblo's Garden was given on March 23, 1895. A few weeks later, the building was demolished to make way for a large office structure erected by sugar-refining titan Henry O. Havemeyer. Only a bit earlier he had purchased the Metropolitan Hotel and the theater.

Niblo's location later became occupied by early-20th century commercial buildings that span the block between Broadway and Crosby Street; one is the former site of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art.

Plays presented at Niblo's YearNameWriter1855Rip Van WinkleHoward Wainwright1858The PhantomDion Boucicault1862The Duke's MottoJohn Brougham1863Leah, the ForsakenAgustin Daly1866The Black CrookCharles M. Barras1868Le Barbe BleueJacques Offenbach1868The White FawnJames Mortimer1868Arrah-na-PogueT.H. Glenn1869The Forty ThievesHenry Brougham Farnie1869The FireflyEdmund Falconer1869Formosa: The Most Beautiful or the Railroad to RuinDion Boucicault1869The Little DetectiveUnknown1869Little Nell and the MarchionessJohn Brougman1869The School for ScandalRichard Brinsley Sheridan1870HeartseaseEdmund Falconer1870Innisfallen; or, The Men in the GapEdmund Falconer1870Not GuiltyWatts Phillips1870The Rapparee, or, The Treaty of LimerickDion Boucicault1870True as SteelJames Schonberg and Paul Meurice1870Under the PalmAlfred Tennyson Tennyson1871Carl, the FiddlerCharles Gayler1871Kit, the Arkansas TravelerThomas B. De Walden1871Richard IIIWilliam Shakespeare1872Black FridayUnknown1873The Beasts of New YorkJ. J. Wallace1873KoomerUnknown1873The Scouts of the PrairieEdward Zane Carrol Judson1874The CryptogramJames DeMille1874EvangelineEdward Everett Rice1874Leatherstocking, or, The Last of the MohicansGeorge Fawcett Rowe1874The Two Sisters, or, the DeformedUnknown1874Wild Cat NedBarrett Sylvester1877Cross and CrescentUnknown1877The Law of the LandUnknown1878The Craiga DhoulN. Hart Jackson1878The GasconThéodore Barrière and Louis Davyl1878Love and LaborUnknown1878M'lissClay Greene1878New York and LondonGeorge Fawcett Rowe1878The Serpent and the DoveUnknown1878Hearts of SteelEdmund Falconer1882Mardo, or, The Nihilists of St. PetersburgUnknown1882VivaLeonard Grover1883The Pavements of ParisAdolphe Belot1884The Blue and the GrayElliot Barnes1885The Bandit KingUnknown1885ClioBartley Thomas Campbell1886Bound to SucceedHenry Pettitt and George Conquest1886EnemiesCharles Coghlan1886The Ivy LeafCon Murphy1886TheodoraVictorien Sardou1887RienziMary Russel Mitford and Steele MacKaye1887A Run of LuckAugustus Harris and Henry Pettitt1887SheHenry Rider Haggard1887Travers HouseUnknown1888The Two SistersDenman Thompson and George W. Ryer1888The StowawayTom Craven

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