{"nrhp_refnum":"73001665","name":"Plays and Players","other_names":["Playhouse, The"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1714 Delancey St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.94694367100004,"lon":-75.17029238999999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-03-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Performing Arts"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick theater building at 1712-1716 Delancey Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built as a dramatic school with a small stage and auditorium seating 324. It is the home of the Plays and Players amateur theater group.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant for its role in Philadelphia theater history, as a pre-Broadway tryout theater that hosted prominent actors, and as the home of an amateur theater group founded in 1911 that claims to be the oldest continuously operating little theater group in the country. The interior is described as well designed for sightlines and acoustics.","narrative":"Built on Delancey Street in Philadelphia with a frontage of about 48 feet and a depth of 92 feet, the three-story steel, brick and granite building was designed by Amos W. Barnes and erected by Frederick A. Havens & Co. Its front is faced in rough brown tapestry brick, with a single band of bas-relief figures brightened by colored tile. Inside, the auditorium has a balcony and seats 324, arranged so that every seat has a close view of the stage, and the orchestra sits in an unobtrusive pit. Wall decorations were executed by the artist Edith Emerson. The cornerstone, described by the actor Edward Everett Horton, is the keystone of the proscenium arch and contains theater memorabilia. Originally a dramatic school, the building soon became a pre-Broadway tryout theater for actors including John Drew, the Barrymores, Maude Adams and Otis Skinner. The Plays and Players amateur group, founded in 1911, bought the building in 1922.","period_of_significance":"1911-1912","architect_builder":"Amos W. Barnes (architect); Frederick A. Havens & Co. (contractor)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Building is used by the Plays and Players group for productions and is leased to other groups when not in use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.11393-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/73001665.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001665/c4c2c4c3b0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001665/c4c2c4c3b0-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plays_and_Players.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plays_and_Players.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"84003563","name":"Washington Square West Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/washington-square-west-historic-district-84003563/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997412","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plays_and_Players_Theatre","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15267013"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/plays-and-players-73001665/"}