Hallam’s company was far superior to any that preceded it. Mrs. Hallam
was not only a beautiful woman, but she was an actress of no ordinary
merit. Dunlap in his youth heard old ladies speak in raptures of her
beauty, grace, and pathos. Hallam was himself an excellent comedian,
and two other members of the company, Rigby and Malone, were actors
of established reputation upon the London boards. The arrival of a
complete company like this, who were not only practised in their art
but amply provided before their departure with dresses, and all that
was necessary for effective dramatic representation, was something too
formidable to contend against. They seem, therefore, to have entirely
supplanted the earlier pioneers, of whom nothing further is known
except that some of their number, Murray, Tremaine, Scott, and Miss
Osborne, played in Hallam’s original company afterward, when it was
under the management of Douglass.
After performing in New York for the winter, Hallam went with his
company to Philadelphia in April, 1754, and from there to the West
Indies, where he died. In 1758 the company returned to New York, under
the management of Douglass, who had married Hallam’s widow. During the
four years that they had been absent the theater remained unoccupied,
and a short time before their arrival a congregation of German
Calvinists had been formed, and being in want of a place of worship
they purchased the theater in Nassau street for $1250, and fitted it
up as a church, which they continued to occupy until 1765, when the
building, which had not been a very substantial one, becoming decayed,
they took it down and erected, upon the spot, another edifice, which
was standing fifteen years ago, and was familiarly known as Gosling’s
Eating House, Nos. 64 and 66 Nassau street.
Finding that the theater had been converted into a church, Douglass
built another one upon Cruger’s Wharf, a large pier, with houses upon
it, which at that time extended from Pearl street into the East River,
between Old and Coenties slips. In the following year, 1759, Douglass
went to Philadelphia, where he erected a small theater, and from there
to Annapolis, where he built a very fine one of brick, capable of
accommodating between five and six hundred people, which he opened
March 3, 1760.
[Decorative Illustration]