Oscar Wilde In America

Oscar Wilde’s first lecture on his 1882 lecture tour of North America was held at Chickering Hall [1], a concert auditorium in New York City. 

 

As can be seen from the 1895 street plan opposite, Chickering Hall was situated at 130 Fifth Avenue, which is the lot at the north-west corner of Fifth Avenue and 18th Street—which is the location of the same address today.

 

The hall measured 75 feet on Fifth Avenue and 135 feet along Eighteenth Street [2].

 

Marked on the plan is my manuscript notation indicating the line of arriving  carriages that contemporary reports said stretched around the corner for the sold-out event.

 

Notes:

[1] George B. Post, 1875.

[2] New York 1880 - Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age, ROBERT A. M. STERN, THOMAS MELLINS and DAVID FISHMAN, The Monacelli Press, 1999.

 

Author: the original reason to be precise about the location of Chickering Hall was to counter an assertion by the New York Public Library that the hall stood on the NE corner. As a result of this research the NYPL has corrected its page here.