The Jenny Lind Theatre

 700 block of Kearny St., Portsmouth Square | map |

The theatre, a project of Tom Maguire, went through three versions starting in 1850. The first two burned, the third he sold to the city in 1852 to pay his debts. The name Jenny Lind was used to convey a bit of elegance to the enterprise. Ms. Lind never saw the theatre nor performed in it. All three were on the same site at the east end of Portsmouth Square, between Merchant St. and Washington St. Nearby on the Washington St. side of the Square was the Bella Union. 

 

 

 

A photo from the deYoung Museum of Thomas Maguire (1820-1896). It appears at the beginning of the first chapter about Maguire in the 1938 monograph by Lawrence Estevan titled "Tom Maguire; Dr. David G. (Yankee) Robinson; M.B. Leavitt." It was completed as part of a Works Progress Administration project. The copy in the collection of the San Francisco Public Library is reproduced on Internet Archive. In the first of his chapters about Maguire, Estevan comments:  

 

"Tom Maguire who rose from cab driver to garmbler, from gambler to saloon keeper, and from saloon keeper to become one of the country's great impresarios has often been called the Napoleon of San Francisco's theatrical world. But this is an easy analogy. True, like Napoleon he thirsted for power, plotted great campaigns, schemed ruthlessly and maneuvered with success. Like Napoleon, after many victories, he failed and went into exile. 

 

"For nearly three decades he dominated his chosen sphere; his career was bound up with perhaps the city's most turbulent and picturesque period. But he was an illiterate backstage Napoleon, a self-made man with all the apparent pride and self-assertion of such a one. He was shrewd, opportunistic, and full of grandiose illusions. He had an instinct for the theatrical and an intuitive knowledge of what would draw a crowd. He furnished a pleasure-hungry city with the spectacles it wanted."

The 1st Jenny Lind:   

Opening: 1850. Tom Maguire built the Jenny Lind Theatre above his Parker House Hotel and Saloon. 

James R. Smith's 2005 book "San Francisco's Lost Landmarks" is on Google Books. On page 94, borrowing heavily from Lawrence Estevan, he comments: 

"Tom Maguire, owner of the Parker House hotel and saloon, built his auditorium above the Parker House, naming it the Jenny Lind Theatre. Maguire espoused the art of theatre, although there is no hint that he had training in that field. Yet, his management and enthusiasm drove the success of his enterprises as well as the art for nearly the duration of his career in San Francisco. The Jenny Lind began as a showplace, intended to impress as well as present. 

"Maguire's goal was elegance - elegance in style with elegant performances. He hired James Stark, a skilled hand at theatre, as the director and began production of 'Macbeth,' 'Hamlet,' 'King Lear,' 'Much Ado About Nothing,' 'Richelieu, 'Pizarro,' 'The Rivals' and other English classics. His performances met with immediate success at the box office and in the newspaper reviews. The theatre soon took its rightful place at the top..."

Closing: The 1st Jenny Lind burned in a fire of May 4, 1851.

 

The 2nd Jenny Lind: 

Opened: June 13, 1851

Closing: It burned in a fire on June 22, nine days after opening. A June 26 article in The Herald that was located by Lawrence Estevan commented:

"One of the hardest cases connected with the fire was the destruction of the Jenny Lind Theatre, just erected and elegantly fitted up by Mr. Thomas Maguire. He had been burnt out in every fire that has occurred in the city and now again before he has removed the scaffolding from his building it is laid low in ashes. The fire seems to have a special spite against him. It appeared to pick him out from others, his being the only building in the block that was burnt. He is going to try it once more we understand. He intends erecting a large brick theatre, one story high at first, the walls of which, have already been raised some five or six feet. The Bella Union, Verandah, Custom House, El Dorado, and California Exchange have again escaped almost unscorched... "

 

The 3rd Jenny Lind:   

Opened: October 4, 1851 with "All That Glitters Is Not Gold." This c.1852 image from James R. Smith's collection appears on page 95 of his book "San Francisco's Lost Landmarks." It's on Google Books. The drawing was published by Quirot & Co. There's a nice copy in the California State Library collection, their item #001376913. Smith comments: 

"This one took longer to build, as it was constructed of brick with fine yellow-toned sandstone facings shipped from Australia, but Maguire was determined that it would survive the next conflagration and be the finest theatre in the city. The interior glowed in pink shades, offset by gilded trim. It included a balcony, three galleries, one 'fitted up in excellent style for respectable colored people,' an orchestra pit and a dress circle. Maguire's new edifice met with resounding acclaim. Veteran actor Walter Leman stated that the third Jenny Lind 'rivaled the best theatres in the Atlantic states.'"

Seating: 2,000

 

A flyer for an October 16, 1851 performance of "Pizarro!" starring Junius Brutus Booth. It appeared with "Priceless Programs of San Francisco's First Theaters," an article by Wooster Taylor in the June 27, 1926 issue of the Examiner. The posters discussed in the article were from the collection of Fred R. Sherman, vice-president at the time of the Bohemian Club and a music store owner. Thanks to Art Siegel for the research. 

Lawrence Estevan notes that despite the grandeur of the new theatre, all was not rosy: 

"The fine prospects with which the third Jenny Lind opened were not realized during the following months. The overhead, the upkeep of the numerous small gold town theatres of which Maguire had been acquiring control, the premature branching out into that monopoly of theatrical business which he was to establish successfully later on, proved Maguire's undoing. He had too many irons in the fire. Still putting up a fine front in February, Maguire succumbed to the current financial depression by the end of June, though before this he had played an occasional trump card at the Jenny Lind. 

"One of these was the introduction locally of Wilmarth Waller, young American tragedian, who played 'heavy' roles for about a week. Caroline Chapman, establishing herself as a local favorite, drew fairly good houses in May. The mechanics were impatient, however, and the builders besieged Maguire demanding payment for services rendered in erecting the magnificent Jenny Lind. Our manager tried to negotiate, but without success. Cash was demanded, and there was no cash."

Closing:  It closed in 1852 and was sold to the city for $200,000 for use as the City Hall. Maguire used the proceeds to pay his debts.

In "San Francisco in 1856," a page on the website of the Museum of the City of San Francisco, they quote from a 1925 publication called "San Francisco News Letter" and add some comments of their own:

"The Civic Center of 1856 San Francisco was Portsmouth Square, or, as it was more generally known, 'The Plaza.' Facing it, on Kearny Street, stood City Hall. This had originally been the Jenny Lind Theatre, built by Thomas Maguire, with a seating capacity of two thousand. In 1852 the municipality purchased it, and altering the interior for city uses, occupied it until the completion of the building at McAllister and Larkin streets in the 1870s. 

"When the Board of Supervisors had refused to pay the city's gas bills, and the gas company had removed all the lanterns from the gas lights on the streets, and turned off the gas to City Hall, the supervisors each with a candle brought from home, stumbled up the narrow stairs of that old City Hall to their meeting room to discuss the lighting situation. Later it was the site of the Hall of Justice, and in the 1960s the lot was sold and a Holiday Inn was built."

 

 

Another view of the building, presumably when it was still a theatre. It's in the San Francisco Public Library collection, where someone has written on the front: 

 

"Jenny Lind Theater--This is a view of Maguire's famous old theatre on Kearny street, between Merchant and Washington, afterwards the Old City Hall, and upon the site of which the new Municipal Building is to be erected. The print from which the above engraving was made is the oldest in existence. It is pronounced by old pioneers an accurate picture." 

 

Written on the back: 

 

"Completed in Oct. 1851, sold to city in 1852 to be utilized as a City Hall for $210,000. 

 

 

 

A c.1852 drawing from the Hamilton Henry Dobbin scrapbooks in the California State Library collection, their item #001520275. In his caption, Dobbin identifies the El Dorado, on the left, as a gambling hall.  

A c.1853 drawing of City Hall on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library. On the right, the Union's building has grown to three stories.

 

 

 

A May 1855 photo by George R. Fardon. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it on Calisphere. It's from the USB Bancroft Library collection. The California State Library has a cropped version in their collection from the Hamilton Henry Dobbin scrapbooks. It's their item #001380449. A version of the photo appeared with "The big screen, no not your TV: over 100 years of San Francisco Theaters," a March 2016 SF Gate photo portfolio.
 

A look north across the square to Washington St. taken in June 1855 by George R. Fardon. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it on Calisphere. It's in the UCB Bancroft Library collection. A version of the photo located by Jack Tillmany had the caption "Portsmouth Square as it appeared in 1856. Bella Union Theater at left; City Hall, formerly Jenny Lind Theater on the right."
 

Hamilton Henry Dobbin has a version of this view in one of his scrapbooks in the California State Library collection. The photo has also appeared as a post by Mark Schwery on the San Francisco History Facebook page. Emiliano Echeverria identified the photo as one taken in 1856 by Fardon. Nick Wright countered: "This is supposed to have been taken by Watkins, one of his first paper prints. Taken from his room when he was staying at Brown's Hotel, according to his biographer Charles Turrell. I even suspect that some of Fardon's photos were taken by Watkins."

 

A photo published in 1866 by Lawrence & Houseworth of the building as City Hall. It's on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library. Note that the El Dorado has become the Hall of Records. Art Siegel notes that A.B. Jacobs, whose name appears in the lower right, was not the photographer but rather a later copyist of the image. The photo can also be seen in the Library of Congress collection, on the Open SF History Project website and from the Society of California Pioneers.

 

 

 

A sad view of the building toward the end of its life. It's on Calisphere from the UCB Bancroft library. We're looking southeast with Washington St. on the left and Kearny going off to the right. Also see an 1872 view from a Hamilton Henry Dobbin scrapbook in the California State Library collection.

 

 

 

A plaque on the site of the Jenny Lind. It's a c.1949 photo in the San Francisco Public Library collection. 

 

 

Looking east on Washington St. toward Kearny St. and the site of the Jenny Lind, now occupied by that high-rise Hilton in the center of the image. That's Portsmouth Square on the right. Photo: Google Maps - 2019

Later Maguire ventures: Beginning in December 1852 Maguire was operating the San Francisco Theatre at 616 Washington, also known as San Francisco Hall. In 1856 he demolished that and replaced it with a new theatre called Maguire's Opera House. He had a short run with the Academy of Music on Pine St. near Montgomery, running only from 1864 to 1867.

Maguire's Opera House on Washington continued to run until 1873 when it was demolished for construction of Montgomery Ave., now called Columbus Ave. He then moved over to the venue at 318 Bush St. that he renamed Maguire's Opera House. It had opened as Congress Hall in 1865. Later it was known as the Standard Theatre.  

Later he took over the theatre that had opened in 1868 as the Alhambra at 325 Bush St. which he called, after a rebuild, Maguire's New Theatre. It was later known as the Bush St. Theatre. In 1876 Maguire was managing the Baldwin Theatre located on Market St. at Powell. Initially it was called the Academy of Music. 

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