Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Arts & Culture

Location

130 E Elm St, Penn Yan, NY 14527, USA

Lat/Long

42.66134, -77.052323

Grant Recipient

Pennsylvania Yankee Theatre Company

Sampson Theatre, located in the Finger Lakes community of Penn Yan, was designed by Dr. Frank Sampson, who worked with consulting architect Frank Harrison (who oversaw carpentry work). Seating approximately 900, the 3-story theatre opened on October 12, 1910 with Louis Mann’s play “The Cheater”. Over the next two decades, the theatre hosted numerous vaudeville acts, musicals, and comic plays, and even former president Theodore Roosevelt, who visited and gave a speech during its first month of operation. In 2008 the former theatre building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.