Eagle Theatre

In 1849, Sacramento was growing rapidly. Only recently wrested from Mexico by the hawkish administration of President James Polk during the Mexican War (1846-48), California was viewed as virgin territory for American settlement when gold was discovered on John Sutter’s estate in 1848. Thousands flooded in from the eastern United States on passenger ships, seeking their fortune in the gold fields, and the sparsely-populated agricultural empire of John Sutter was soon inundated with squatters. His crops devastated and his cattle herds destroyed, Sutter was persuaded by his son to divide the estate into lots and sell it off. These parcels in the elbow of the Sacramento and American Rivers formed the core of the soon-to-be booming city of Sacramento in 1849 and 1850.

The riverbanks of newborn Sacramento were daily awash in people and freight, as ferries offloaded passengers bound for the nearby gold fields and supplies for local merchants. The riverfront was prime real estate, not only for businesses selling goods to would-be miners, but also saloons, gambling houses, and other entertainment venues. Nevertheless, the city lacked a theater until the proprietors of the Round Tent Saloon decided to build a historic first in July 1849.

It did not come cheap. Despite being built of canvas stretched over a wooden frame with a tin roof, the structure cost over $30,000 (a modern cost of nearly $900,000) due to the scarcity of building materials. At such a steep initial investment, small wonder that the new Eagle Theatre underwent four bankruptcies and three changes of ownership in its short lifespan. Nonetheless, despite its poor acoustics, dirt floor, and amateur actors, the theatre opened with fanfare in September of that year, claiming to be “30 feet front and 95 deep, capable of accommodating 800 persons.” The same September 27 newspaper advertisement in the Weekly Alta California (published belatedly on October 4) proclaimed that “arrangements are completed for the opening of a temple devoted to the Drama and the amusement of their fellow citizens.”

Performances first began on September 25, when the Stockton Minstrels performed Ethiopian Concerts. Despite being “well attended” in October during the run of its first dramatic play, The Bandit Chief, the new playhouse must have had difficulty paying for itself. The next changes of ownership occurred in quick succession, because by November 17, 1849 it was already being managed by its final lessee, Mr. J.B. Atwater. Less than two months later, a performance was cut short by violent wind and rain on January 4, 1850--its fateful final performance. Later that month, a catastrophic flood that devastated the similarly ad-hoc structures of Sacramento wrecked the flimsy Eagle Theatre.

Atwater and his troupe briefly set up a theatre on Washington Street in San Francisco at the end of January, but were gone again by the end of the month (somewhat poked at in the San Francisco-based Daily Alta California, who said that “none of them were professional people,” though Atwater was himself an actor who had commanded $60 a night at the Eagle). They returned to Sacramento, this time joined by Sarah Kirby (later Sarah Kirby Stark), and actress Atwater had met in San Francisco. Building had commenced on the new Tehama Theatre in March 1850, two hundred feet east of the Eagle Theatre’s old site (and possibly using some of the old theatre's materials), and began new performances later that month. Sarah Kirby co-managed the Tehama with Atwater, becoming the first female theatre manager in California.

California State Parks, as part of the general effort to restore Old Sacramento as part of national bicentennial celebrations in the 1970s, rebuilt the Eagle Theatre in 1974 to its exact historical specifications, including wooden bench seats and a saloon in the entrance. Since then, it has hosted a multitude of historical, theatrical, and community events, and is at the disposal of the State Parks to support the educational mission of Old Sacramento State Historic Park.