Summit Playhouse
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Summit Playhouse | |
 Original 1891 building | |
    | |
| Location | 10 New England Avenue Summit, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°42′54″N 74°21′55″W / 40.71500°N 74.36528°W |
| Built | ca. 1891 |
| Architect | Arthur Bates Jennings |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| NRHP reference No. | 09001177 [1] |
| NJRHP No. | 4407 [2] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 30, 2009 |
| Designated NJRHP | September 29, 2009 |
The Summit Playhouse is a theater in Summit, New Jersey and home to one of the oldest continuously operating amateur community theaters in the United States[3] producing a new show each calendar season.[4] In 2011, it presented Meet Me in St. Louis,[5] Closer Than Ever,[6] and Speed the Plow.[3]
The original stone Romanesque building designed by Arthur Bates Jennings was constructed in 1891 as the town's first library.[1] A municipally-operated Summit Public Library was established in 1900, and in 1910 the library was moved to another building, leaving the Romanesque building under-utilized but still belonging to the library. In 1918, The Playhouse Association was founded as a World War I relief organization, and the theatrical group rented the empty older library from the Summit Library Association for one dollar a year for the next fifty years on condition that the group maintain the facility. In 1960, a 120-seat auditorium was added and the original 1891 structure was converted into a stage. The Summit Library Association officially deeded the building to the theater in 1968.[4]
