Original research by Harold Smith, Jean Hallock and Sylvia Shaffran (circa 1980)
Revised & updated by Robert Barta (2014)

Of the three theaters which existed in Riverhead, New York, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, only one – the Music Hall – has come down to us. Miraculously escaping the wrecker’s ball due largely to its upstairs location over two lucrative storefronts, the Music Hall has survived not only all its contemporaries, but also a palatial “modern” theater built around the corner in 1920 and razed in the early ’60s. It is the oldest theater in downstate New York – 20 years older than the oldest theater on Broadway!