On Chapel Street, in New Haven, Connecticut, opposite the Old Campus: from the time of glaciation, cultivated by the Quinnipiac; in 1614, charted by a Dutch explorer; in 1638, colonized by the Puritans; throughout the American Revolution, home of the signer, Roger Sherman, his second wife Rebecca Prescott-Sherman, their fifteen children, and the family store; in 1860, industrialist Gaius Fenn Warner's Italianate villa, by Henry Austin; in 1880, Marshal Peter R. Carll's Opera House; in 1884, the Republican League; in 1887, the Hyperion; in 1903, the Union League addition, by Richard Williams; in 1926, the Roger Sherman Theater; beginning in 1976, a tradition of French fine dining, that continues today. While the Roger Sherman house is no longer standing, it holds up all right.
"I do not know what caused the fire. A woman had just finished singing on the stage and the film was being shown. I saw a little smoke and a light which I thought had something to do with the production. Then I saw a piece of blazing material fall from the top of the stage. It was small, but it was followed by a burst of fire."
"The new Roger Sherman Theatre cost approximately $1,280,000 and is of old Spanish mission style architecture. The decorative scheme is in keeping with the old Spanish style, with rude construction, rough cross beams, rough plaster, tinted and outlining marine figures. The outer lobby is of black marble while from the inner lobby is a broad, sweeping stairway to the balcony and mezzanine floor. Behind the balcony is a spacious lounge, covered by a dimly lighted sky blue arch."