Dock Street Theatre

On February 12, 1736, the original Dock Street Theatre opened with a performance of *The Recruiting Officer* — the first building in the American colonies built exclusively for theatrical performances. The Great Fire of 1740 likely destroyed it. The current structure went up in 1809 as the Planter's Hotel, where Robert Smalls worked as a waiter before his extraordinary Civil War escape. In 1935, a Works Progress Administration project converted the hotel shell into a working theatre; it reopened in 1937, and has been running ever since.