The National Theater was a

Yiddish theatre Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues ...

at the southwest corner of Second Avenue ( Chrystie) and

Houston Street Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River in t ...

in the

Yiddish Theater District The Yiddish Theatre District, also called the Jewish Rialto and the Yiddish Realto, was the center of New York City's Yiddish theatre scene in the early 20th century. It was located primarily on Second Avenue, though it extended to Avenue B, b ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York City, United States. When first built it was leased to

Boris Thomashefsky Boris Thomashefsky (russian: Борис Пинхасович Томашевский, sometimes written Thomashevsky, Thomaschevsky, etc.; yi, באָריס טאָמאשעבסקי) (1868–1939), born Boruch-Aharon Thomashefsky, was a Ukrainian-b ...

and Julius Adler. Its grand opening as the Adler-Thomashefsky National Theatre was on September 24, 1912. Zylbercweig, Zalmen (1934).
Tomashefsky, Boris
. ''Leksikon fun yidishn teater'' exicon of the Yiddish theatre Vol. 2. Warsaw: Farlag Elisheva. Columns 804-840; here: col. 822.Grand Opening of the Adler-Thomashefsky National Theatre, Houston St. and Second Avenue
rogram(1912). New York: Lipshitz Press. For performance on September 24, 1912. Digitized version retrieved via the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

, 2016-12-26. The theatre was one of the many designed by architect

Thomas W. Lamb Thomas White Lamb (May 5th, 1870 – February 26th, 1942) was a Scottish-born, American architect. He was one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas in the 20th century. Career Born in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom, Thomas W. La ...

, and seated 1,900 when it opened. It was built as one of a pair of theatres, with the Crown Theater, seating 963, on the upper level. Both theatres closed in 1941, re-opened in 1951 as a pair of cinemas (the National Theater and the Roosevelt Theater), and were demolished in 1959.

References

Yiddish theatre in the United States Jewish theatres Jews and Judaism in Manhattan Demolished theatres in New York City Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Former theatres in Manhattan Yiddish culture in New York City Lower East Side Thomas W. Lamb buildings Buildings and structures demolished in 1959 {{Manhattan-struct-stub