Fulton Theatre

The Fulton Theatre in downtown Lancaster, built in 1852 and billed as the oldest continuously operating theater in America, stands on the foundation of a colonial jail. In December 1763 the Paxton Boys, a vigilante mob, killed the last Conestoga people there while they were held in protective custody, an atrocity that ended the Conestoga community. The jail later held fugitives from slavery, and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens spoke in the building. Actors and stagehands tell of a woman in white near an old spiral staircase who gave her name as Marie, perhaps for actress Marie Cahill, and of shadows and voices, and musicians have left offerings for decades. The Fulton was investigated on the TV series Portals to Hell. This history is real, and the Conestoga people killed here deserve to be remembered with respect.