Dock Street Theatre
Opened in 1736 as the first American building built expressly for theatrical performances, the original Dock Street Theatre burned in the Great Fire of 1740, and the Planter's Hotel rose on the site in 1809, drawing Lowcountry planters during racing season before the WPA rebuilt a working theatre inside its shell in the 1930s. From those hotel years comes its most enduring spirit: the Lady in Red, said to be a young woman named Nettie Dickerson struck dead by lightning on the second-floor balcony during a storm.
Actors still report her gliding through the halls in crimson, sometimes visible only from the knees up because the floor was later raised. The tragedian Junius Brutus Booth, father of John Wilkes Booth, is also said to walk the stage in frock coat and top hat.
📍 135 Church Street, Charleston, SC 29401, Charleston, SC · Get directions