National Park Service Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) U.S. Department of the Interior

Built to Last No. 7 Gayety Theatre 405 East Street, Baltimore (1905-6, J.B. McElfatrick & Sons, architects) Excerpt from the full report written by Laurie Ossman, Ph.D., for HABS

The Gayety Theatre is the oldest remaining theater in Baltimore. The elaborate ornament of the Gayety façade typifies the exuberance of turn-of-the-20th- century theater design as a sub- genre, in this case drawing on both Baroque and Art Nouveau orna- ment for its eye-catching and fan- ciful decorative vocabulary. The Gayety is the venerable key- stone of a district referred to local- ly as “The Block,” and known for its adult entertainment. “The Block” is somewhat of a mis- nomer, as the area of arcades, bars, burlesque houses and adult book- shops extended east along Baltimore Street from Calvert Street for approximately eight blocks in the middle third of the Gayety Theatre from the northeast. James W. Rosenthal, photographer, Summer 2001. 20th century. Due to various cul- tural forces, and particularly to a concerted “anti-smut” campaign in the city rather than to await Although many legitimate theaters during the mayoral tenure of rebuilding in the so-called burnt and vaudeville houses were built in William Donald Schaefer in the district. The major financial insti- the Howard Street vicinity after the early 1980s, most of this extensive tutions affected by the fire general- Great Fire, some—like The commercial sub-cultural landscape ly announced rebuilding plans Gayety, Lubin’s Nickelodeon and no longer exists, and “the Block” within months as if to reassure Vaudeville “duplex” directly across is, in fact, a singular representative clients that the institutions—if not the street, The Victoria (later of a once-thriving red-light district. the structures that housed them— known as The Embassy) and The remained impervious to the devas- Rivoli—remained in the area and Rising commercial rents in the tation. The Gayety, as it turns out, defined this stretch of Baltimore heart of Baltimore’s central busi- was built on the former site of The Street as a “popular entertainment” ness district during the late 19th German Correspondent newspaper, center, with an emphasis on bur- century spurred substantial reloca- indicating that the press could not lesque and vaudeville. This did tion of Baltimore Street’s retail and wait for the construction of new not, perforce, mean that the finan- other shops west to Howard quarters in the burnt district. The cial district hit the skids after the Street—an area previously domi- lots formerly occupied by the 1904 Fire: Despite the connota- nated by wholesale outlets. The newspapers along Baltimore Street tions acquired later, burlesque and Great Fire of 1904 accelerated this were sold to new owners for new vaudeville were mainstream forms trend, as retail tenants opted to uses. of entertainment aimed at the move to existing space elsewhere working and middle classes. (continued on page 2)

Built to Last: Ten Enduring Landmarks of Baltimore’s Central Business District, Historic American Buildings Survey, Washington, DC, May 2002. Gayety Theatre (continued)

sThe Gayety was certainly not the Upscale retail either moved to lary made it an apt choice for most prestigious theater in Howard Street or, later, out of the houses, such as The Gayety, for Baltimore, but its ornamental city altogether, to suburban shop- which the animate female form audacity suggested an assertion of ping centers and malls. More was one of the major attractions. its status as the pre-eminent theater arcades, as well as adult book- of its type (i.e. burlesque) in the shops, peep shows and show bars city. That such a “low-culture” cropped up to fill in the vacant genre should receive such elabo- spaces and gradually redefined The complete report for this structure, including rate treatment stands as evidence East Baltimore Street as a “red bibliographic citations and references, may be of the prolific (and competitive) light district,” analogous to New obtained from the Historic American Buildings performing arts culture that thrived York’s Times Square, Washington, Survey beginning in September 2002. Copies of in the city at the turn of the 20th DC’s 14th Street and New this information sheet may be downloaded at no century. Orleans’s legendary Bourbon cost from the HABS web site: Street. By the 1960s, The Gayety By World War I, the Gayety’s no longer hosted headline perform- www.cr.nps.gov/habshaer/habs/ neighbors had made the switch to ers, and local news features sur- showing movies. In the 1920s and rounding the cataclysmic fire in 1930s, cinema began to supplant 1969 tended to emphasize nostal- During the summer of 2001, the Historic burlesque and, especially, vaude- gia for its decline. In this sense, American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the ville as the chief form of low-cost The Gayety Theater Building Historical Trust, in coordination with popular entertainment across the encapsulates the history of bur- the City of Baltimore’s Commission for United States. Burlesque houses, lesque as an entertainment form Historical and Architectural Preservation such as The Gayety, promoted and its interaction with civic form (CHAP) and Preservation Maryland, recorded more risqué acts in the effort to in the 20th century United States. ten historic buildings and sites within Baltimore’s give the public something that they Central Business District through large-format couldn’t get in movies, especially The Gayety’s façade (the only photography and original historical research. after the adoption of the Hayes remaining element of the historic The heart of the downtown area and focus of production code in 1932, which structure) is a particularly lavish intensive redevelopment efforts, Baltimore’s th Central Business District is a designated city his- not only banned nudity but placed version of the 19 -century bur- toric district and home to a diverse array of his- Draconian restrictions on sexual lesque theater sub-genre. The bur- toric commercial and civic buildings, churches, content and references in film. lesque theater evolved from theaters and other landmarks. Many of them Nostalgic descriptions of perform- European Opera House models by predate the district’s Great Fire of 1904 and ances at The Gayety and its peers way of the music hall type (as chronicle Baltimore’s rise as a financial, com- indicate that, by today’s standards, opposed to a civic meeting house mercial and civic center. This project, resulting the performances were quite mod- type for legitimate theaters in in more than 150 photographs by Baltimore est. However, the aura of taboo much of the United States through- photographer James W. Rosenthal for HABS and was a large part of what sustained out the 19th century) likely ten detailed architectural histories by Laurie burlesque in general, and The because associations of slightly Ossman, PhD., also a Baltimore resident, grew Gayety in particular, through the louche European cosmopolitanism out of concern about the recent loss of the mid-20th century. were part of the image burlesque Merchants & Miners Transportation Company hoped to project. In addition, the Building at 17 Light Street and other buildings of From its heyday in the 1910s and building of many major opera architectural distinction in Baltimore. 1920s—when The Gayety’s bill houses in Europe in the latter half included nationally prominent of the 19th drew on the Baroque Ranging chronologically from the Peale Museum comedians such as Abbott and for inspiration, and the Baroque (1814) to the Bank of America Building (1929; Costello, Phil Silvers, Jackie Revival Style permitted for a free formerly the Baltimore Trust Company Gleason and Red Skelton—the application of exuberant ornament Building), and in function from Old St. Paul’s Gayety was a “top-of-the-line” atop a loosely classical shell and Church (1846) to the Gayety Theatre (1906), burlesque house. In this period tectonic vocabulary. The classicism the ten landmarks selected for this study illus- (just before and after World War provided for grandeur and simplic- trate the architectural diversity of the district and the myriad forces that have informed the II) iconic such as Gypsy ity of form, while the ornamental district’s growth and evolution over time. The Rose Lee, Blaze Starr, , opportunities might allow the exhibit, launched at the Maryland Historical Valerie Parks and per- building’s façade to act as a three- Society in May 2002 during National Historic formed there. Following the dimensional marquee, advertising Preservation Month, and the companion walking Second World War, major banking sumptuous escapist entertainments tour provide a glimpse into the architectural his- and commercial institutions in within. In addition, the ease with tory of Baltimore’s Central Business District. It need of additional office space which Baroque Revival ornament is hoped that the exhibit and brochure will often relocated or shifted their elided into Art Nouveau, with its encourage further exploration and preservation major operations to the new civic anthropomorphic (and predomi- of Baltimore’s tremendously rich architectural center along Charles Street. nantly female) decorative vocabu- heritage.

2 Built to Last No. 7