The Théâtre de la Gaité was built in 1835 on the site of an earlier structure of the same name that burned in February of that year. It was one of a row of theaters, cheek by jowl along the Boulevard du Temple, that was demolished in 1862 as part of Haussmann's reconfiguration of the city, making way for the Place du Château d'Eau. Dubeuty and Cormon's melodrama "Le Canal Saint-Martin" opened at the Gaité on July 12, 1845, and long enjoyed immense popularity.