Leach’s Opera House(1884) NE corner of First and D streets became D Street Theater 1890 demolished 1900 Horton Hall(1869) SE corner of Sixth & F San Diego’s first theater building Most of the 19th-century entertainment in San Diego occurred at four downtown theaters: Tanner died just days after the opening and the troupe disbanded after only two performances. Benches for 150 were crammed into the room and the Tanner Troupe presented the first professional shows in San Diego, a family singing and dancing revue. A stage was assembled in one end of the front bedroom of the Whaley House. Tanner for $20 in gold coin, allowing him to take down, in the second story, twelve feet of studding, commencing at the east brick wall of the house, for the purpose of making an exhibition room, and a portion of the east end railing of the balcony for the purpose of erecting stairs thereto, for theatrical productions. On November 1, 1868, he leased the second floor of his house and the use of the corral to Thomas W. Thomas Whaley was a hard-headed New England storekeeper who brought to San Diego its first real taste of professional theatre.

Between April 19 and June 2, 1858, this group produced The Lady of Lyons, The Idiot Witness, and The Death of Rollo. The organization formed by the men of Company D was called The American Dramatic Club. Soldiers’ wives and local women took the female parts. United States soldiers of Company D, Third Artillery, commanded by a Major Blake brought the theater to town with a season of six popular plays of the period, plus a world premiere: “The Smiths and the Browns of San Diego,” a comedy set in the Franklin House in Old Town. The first recorded theatrical performances in San Diego were in 1858 at the San Diego Mission. Theatre History in the Nineteenth Century

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