Purporting to be America’s oldest continually operating theater (a claim also made by the Walnut Street Theater in

Philadelphia), this building was designed by Jay as a large, three-story box occupying the entire trust lot. It was largely rebuilt after it burned in 1906 and again in 1948, though portions of the north and east walls of the 1818 building survive (covered on the exterior by stucco). The exuberant Art Moderne marquee, terrazzo pavement evoking wave patterns, and cylindrical glass ticket office attest that the rebuilt theater was emulating a “modern look” to compete with the recently opened Weis Theater (3.10) on Broughton Street, while an exterior stair, designed to admit African Americans, speaks to the backcast legacy of racial segregation. Historic seats from the SCAD Trustees Theater (3.10) were salvaged and installed here in 2013.