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On October 22, 1860, the Montgomery Theatre in Montgomery, Alabama opened its doors for the first time. The brand new theater was being leased and managed by Matthew Canning who brought with him a troupe of actors. Canning's lead actor was 22 year old John Wilkes Booth on his first starring tour. An accidental gunshot wound ten days earlier prevent Booth from being part of the theater's debut performance but, on October 29, Booth was well enough to preform for a few days. At this time, however, he still was being billed under the stage name John Wilkes rather than his full name of Booth. Over the past few years he had used the name J. B. Wilkes as he worked to be worthy of the name Booth. But on December 1, 1860, the last day of the troupe's engagement in Montgomery, a benefit was held for him where he played Richard III. On that performance Booth decided the time had come to reclaim his family name. On that performance, and from then on, he would use his true name of John Wilkes Booth for the rest of his career.
While Booth would never return to the Montgomery Theatre after his farewell performance, many other greats would take to its stage for over the next 47 years, including his brother Edwin who performed there in 1876, 1882, and 1888. In 1907, the interior of the old theater was remodeled into a department store. In 2014, while work was being done to restore the old structure, it suffered a partial collapse. Despite efforts by the city of Montgomery to find a buyer to pick up the pieces and restore the old theater building, no developer wanted it. In 2017, demolition of the building occurred. Aside from Ford's Theatre and the National Theatre in D.C., the Montgomery Theatre was only surviving theater building that John Wilkes Booth performed in.
On July 5, 2017, I visited Montgomery and witnessed the demotion of the theater as it was occurring. During that time, I salvaged a partial brick from the old structure. This brick, with the words Montgomery Theatre written in sharpie on it, is for auction. The theater has since been completely demolished making this one of the last remaining traces of the place where John Wilkes Booth reclaimed his name.
The brick measures approximately 4" x 4". Please see below for images.
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