The Teatro Tapia, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is presumed to be the oldest free-standing drama stage building still in use in the United States. It is named after the poet and dramatist Alejandro Tapia y Rivera (1826-1882).
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The theater faces east, across from Plaza de Colón, on Fortaleza Street, and was constructed in 1824. It was designed in the Italian style as a horseshoe shaped opera house with three tiers of boxes. A block south lies a brick-shaped original Casa de camineros; house of road-maintainers. To the North-east lie a string of cultural institutions: the restored Casino de Puerto Rico, the YMCA, the Carnegie library, the Ateneo Puertorriqueño, and Moorish-inspired Casa de España. In the North seaward cliff, sprawls the historic and labyrinthine fort of San Cristóbal. The original landward gate of old San Juan lay just east of this site on Calle Fortaleza.
For over one hundred years since it was built it was the center of cultural life in the city. Famous soprano Adelina Patti sang there in one of her earlier tours of the Americas during the mid nineteenth century. Other notable performers to have graced its stage include the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.
About the theater, it is written that "the most significant moments of Puerto Rico's musical history are associated with...Teatro Tapia... and have been carefully documented by...Emilio Pasarell and Antonia Saez.[1]
Initially named the San Juan Municipal Theater, it was named the Antonio Paoli Theater in 1935.[2] It was then officially renamed the Teatro Alejandro Tapia y Rivera in 1937.[3] After years of neglect during the forties, the former Mayor of San Juan Felisa Rincón de Gautier (who served from 1946 to 1969) pushed to save the theater from demolition. It was restored in the late forties and has subsequently been used to provide a venue for musical theater, drama and other cultural events. With a maximum capacity of 700 people, this 19th century theater serves as an arena for cultural events and enchanting ballet performances. The interior audience hall is remarkable for the period -- copies of wood chairs and its three tiers of boxes. Subsequent restorations (in 1976 and 1997) returned its old charm.