The basement of this bungalow was converted to a theater by a tuberculosis victim who found solace in Shakespeare. His daily recitations attracted a neighborhood audience to whom his wife and daughters served grape juice and homemade cookies. As audiences grew, Swartz accommodated them by building his 150-seat basement theater. Among 800 plays produced during Swartz's twenty-year occupation were every one of Shakespeare's dramas. In the 1950s R. Paul Willett reopened the space as the Gaslight Theater, which staged plays in an informal atmosphere, a tradition continued by The Victorian Theater.