The Dock Street Theater in Charleston. One of the first theaters in North America, a "New Theater on Dock Street" was built as early as 1735 or 1736, and Charlestonians have enjoyed good dramatic performances ever since. At one time there were several theaters on Dock Street, until the Planter's Hotel was built there around 1800. In the 1930s, Mayor Burnett R. Maybank headed a drive to get funding from the WPA to build a replica of the original Dock Street Theater inside the façade of the no-longer-operating Planter's Hotel. The present Dock Street Theater reopened in November of 1937. Just beyond its beautiful wrought iron balconies can be seen the slender steeple of St. Philip's Episcopal Church.
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
