You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all  

the sins you never had the courage to commit.” 

 —Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray) 

The Savannah Theatre 

Located on Chippewa Square, the Savannah Theatre is the oldest operating theatre site in the nation. 

Of course, the theatre building itself has changed considerably since it first opened for business in 1818. A hurricane in 1898, and three destructive fires in 1906, 1944, and 1948, led to substantial structural overhauls to the theatre building itself.  

Naturally, a vast array of talented performances has been showcased right here in Savannah for over 200-years, which included an Oscar Wilde lecture given in 1882.  

Since reading it while attending the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD), I’ve always loved Wilde’s philosophical novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, considered so ‘indecent’ and ‘scandalous’ in its day. Self-indulgence, debauchery, murder, blackmail, suicide, and art! It couldn’t offer a better literary mix. 

The initial Savannah Theater building was designed by William Jay with an impressive seating capacity of one-thousand patrons. Jay was the celebrated architect for other (now) wonderfully preserved works in Savannah: including the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters (Postcards from Savannah #13), the Juliette Gordon Low House (PFS #32), and The Mary Telfair House (PFS #34).  

Not to be forgotten, I hope to be painting the William Jay designed Scarbrough House soon, which now serves as Savannah’s unique Ships of the Sea Museum located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. 

William Jay had arrived in Savannah in December 1817. Within an extremely short 12-months, he managed to design and then oversee the construction of a very grand theatre. The story of this accomplishment is well-reported in The Showy Town of Savannah: The Story of the Architect William Jay, a biography written by John Duncan and Sandra Underwood, published in 2019. 

According to Duncan and Underwood, it was likely that Jay got off the ship with the plans in hand.  

He had entered a competition for the London Theatre but was not awarded its commission. Before Jay sailed from Liverpool, several prominent Savannah citizens had been planning for a new theatre, resulting in two lots facing Bull Street on Chippewa Square already reserved for the potential project. 

Like so many things in life, it was serendipity that led to William Jay’s building of the Savannah Theatre. 

The Brown Ward, in which Chippewa Square is centered, was laid out in 1815. The Ward was named for General Jacob Jennings Brown. Brown was a Brigadier General of American forces at the Battle of Chippewa, in which his army defeated the British during the War of 1812.  

The success at Chippewa was a turning point for the U.S. Army in its campaign against the British and made Jacob Brown a national hero. He later was appointed Commanding General of the United States Army by President James Monroe. 

American history is always in play wherever you set down your easel in Savannah’s Historic District. Each scene has a singular beauty to capture en plein air. Also, each site always has its own intriguing story.