Circus of Pepin and Breschard

The equestrian theatre company of Pépin and Breschard, American Victor Pépin and Frenchman Jean Baptiste Casmiere Breschard, arrived in the United States of America from Madrid, Spain (where they had performed during the 1805 and 1806 seasons), in November 1807. They toured that new country until 1815. From their arrival until the present day, what is now known as the traditional circus has had a presence in North America.

Invited to perform in the United States by Spanish Ambassador Luis de Onís, the company landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts from Spain. They performed their first season in Charlestown, Massachusetts, after being refused a permit to perform in neighboring Boston.

In the following years Pépin and Breschard's troupes built circus theatres in cities across the United States, including New York, New York; New Orleans; Charlestown, Massachusetts; Baltimore, Maryland; Richmond, Virginia; Alexandria, Virginia; Charleston, South Carolina; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They also built a theatre in Lower Canada in Montreal. The oldest continuously operating theatre in the English-speaking world and the oldest theatre in the United States, the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia was built by Pépin and Breschard in 1809.Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette attended the opening of a renovated Walnut in 1812.

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