Credit: Courtesy of the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.
Able to seat as many as 1,165, the Chestnut Street Theatre, also known as both the New Theatre and "Old Drury," illuminated its stage with oil lamps raised and lowered to darken or brighten scenes, in the "French manner" of lighting. According to French bookseller Moreau de Saint-Méry, ladies in the audience who turned their backs to the stage at times offered scenes more indecent than programs offered in French theatres.
