The Southwark Theatre was founded on the intersection of Fourth Street and
South Street outside of the city borders in the south of Philadelphia. It was founded by the
American Company, who regularly used the building during their tours to the city for about thirty years onward.
David Douglass, a member of the company, built it, and it became the first permanent theatre building in North America in 1766. It had a capacity of about 800 people. On April 24, 1767, at the Southwark, the American Company staged
The Prince of Parthia by
Thomas Godfrey, the first production in the
United States of a play written by an American. The Southwark Theatre remained the only theatre in the city until the
Chestnut Street Theatre was founded in 1794, which soon replaced it as the city's main venue. The Southwark Theatre was no longer used for theatre by 1817. It was damaged by a fire in 1821 and repurposed as a
hayloft and
distillery. ==References==