Showboat!

The James Adams Theater, known to locals simply as "The Showboat" inspired Edna Ferber's novel and the musical Showboat.

James Adams, a showman from Michigan, had the large floating theater built at Washington, North Carolina's Farrow Shipyard in 1913. The boat was massive, measuring 128 feet long and 34 feet wide. It had 522 seats on the main floor and a balcony, and 32 actors always traveled aboard. The boat came to the harbor at night "lit from stem to stern," according to local accounts.

The premiere performance on the showboat was in Washington on February 19, 1914. Ferber spent four days on this showboat in 1925, gathering information and a setting for her novel. Though the novel is set in Mississippi, the details are very much from Washington's showboat and the Albemarle area.

When the showboat made its last trip to Washington in the late 1930s, it was one of only three left in the country.

Pictures:"Showboat" shown docked at Water Street, in Elizabeth City, NC. Courtesy Fred Fearing Collection.