It was at [Augustin Daly’s Fifth Avenue Theatre] that the late Fanny Davenport, who first appeared in New York, at Niblo’s Gardens, in 1862, made a great hit, six weeks after Augustin Daly had started the house, by her rendering of Lady Gay Spanker, her father representing Sir Harcourt Courtly. During the following seasons she increased her popularity by her bright and clever performances as Violetta, in Colley Cibber’s She Would and She Would Not; Lady Mary, in Mrs Inchbald’s Maids as They Are, and Wives as They Were; and Miss Richland, in Goldsmith’s The Good-Natured Man. In the course of a few years the Fifth Avenue grew to be the most fashionable theatre in New York, and great was the calamity when the house was destroyed by fire in 1873.
The Era 6/10/1899. Print.