The "The Chesapeake's Showboat" Story

Newspaper photo showing "The Chesapeake Showboat" moored
at the dock along Chesapeake City, Maryland.

It was an ordinary day.  Walking with Carol through our favorite Antique store in North East, Maryland, Main Street Antiques, when I came across a showcase near the front of the store that had a newspaper article titled "I Remember ... The Chesapeake's Showboat".  Then I studied the photo that was under the article and realized I recognized the location where the photo was taken.  After reading the caption under the photo I knew I was right ..... it was Chesapeake City.  

Side view of Adams Floating Theatre, also known as
"The Chesapeake Showboat".

Funny that after all the years that we have been traveling the towns along the upper Chesapeake Bay that we never had heard of The Chesapeake Showboat before.  Then I read some of the newspaper article and found out that the showboat had a 500-seat auditorium with a 350-seat balcony and a 19-foot-wide stage with an orchestra pit.  

This photo shows the interior of the playhouse.  The
19-foot-wide stage can be seen at the rear of the photo.

The playhouse was constructed at the Tar River shipyard in North Carolina on the sprawling hull of a shoal-draft lumber barge.  Just when the story was getting interesting, I hit the fold in the newspaper and I couldn't read anymore.  I was about to ask the store attendant to open the showcase so I could read more when Carol appeared and said our dinner reservation was in 20 minutes.  Well, the dinner was great, but my interest in the Chesapeake Showboat still existed so when I got home I hit the computer and found out some more details about the barge turned showboat.  

Another view of the floating theatre moored along the Chesapeake.

The idea for the showboat was developed by a former circus aerialist turned traveling tent-show operator.  Guy's name was James Adams and he began his adventure in 1914 when the showboat toured the Chesapeake Bay.  It was visited by novelist Edna Gerber who wrote a 1926 novel which inspired Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's Broadway show "Show Boat."  The showboat must have been something to see as it traveled the Chesapeake Bay.  

A collage of ads from newspapers along the Chesapeake.

It had an on-board generator which provided electricity for the stage lights and the interior and exterior lights.  It also had a system that made running water.  There were usually about 10 actors, 10 concert band musicians and a six-piece orchestra with most all of them serving as ushers, ticket-takers, stage hands and members of the tugboat crew.  While doing some more searching, I found the same photo that I had seen at the antique store and after looking at some more I realized that the Bayard House, our favorite Chesapeake City restaurant, is shown on the right side of photo.  

The demise of the James Adams Floating Theatre.

The adventure created by James Adams Floating Theatre must have been pretty neat and I wish I had been able to see the showboat, but it was lost to history when it was destroyed by fire in 1941 while being towed to Savannah, Georgia to be refitted.  I did read that there is now a concerned citizen's group that is working to return this lost national treasure, the James Adams Floating Theatre, so others can experience the thrill of live entertainment while feeling the movement of the tides.  Could be that the estimated cost of $2.5 million might be a deterrent to bringing the dream to fruition.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.