Federal Bar Association Writing Competition

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn A. Sampson
Keyword(s):  
Bar Association

The Building of the Lafayette Theatre

1974 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-129
Author(s):  
Robert Montilla
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Bar Association ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

The Lafayette Theatre of New York was built and owned by Charles W. Sandford (1796–1878), a colorful and sometimes eccentric personality, whose careers in law, business, and the military, combined with a personal predilection for pomp and display, made him a prominent member of New York's society. As a businessman, Sandford made and lost “several fortunes” in the course of his eventful life in a variety of financial speculations that included investments in real estate, hardware, and theatres. Most of these ended disastrously for him, but his ventures accrued enough profit to allow him to live stylishly all his life, entertain every prominent guest of the city and, on his death in 1878, leave his family a “comfortable competency.” As a lawyer, Sandford handled several celebrated cases and, being generally considered “among the finest” members of his profession, was eventually named vice-president of the New York Bar Association. But it was in his career as a soldier that his love for horses, parades, and gilded uniforms was most manifest and which led Sandford to erect the first full-scale equestrian theatre in America.

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