Lecture Room, New Barnum's American Museum on Broadway

The Lecture Room of the Barnum's New American Museum, at 539-541 Broadway. Engraving published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (September 30, 1865).

The Barnum's New American Museum opened on September 6, 1865, on the west side of Broadway, between Spring and Prince streets. The building formerly known as the "Chinese Hall" consisted of five large salons and a lecture room (auditorium with large audience during a theatrical production).

The American Museum, originally founded in 1790 by the Tammany Society, was formerly housed the historic building erected by 1830 on Broadway, at Ann Street. Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810–1891), acquired the building in 1841 and made it a famous entertainment venue. Unfortunately, the iconic structure was burned to the ground in 1865. In the same year, Barnum opened a new American Museum at 539-541 Broadway, which was also destroyed by fire in the morning of March 3, 1868.

Below, some text from the Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (September 30, 1865) about this Lecture Room: «The new Museum (...)consists of five long saloons, and a splendid Lecture Room−of which we give an exact representation. The stage of this room is 50 feat wide, by 46 feet deep, and the auditorium is about 80 feet deep, and calculated to hold 2,500 persons. The decorations are very elegant. Among the great advantages of the present building, is the rapid egress in case of any emergency, as ample doors on both ends enable the entire audience to pass out in five minutes.»