The forerunner of today's Harbor Playhouse was a group called the Corpus Christi Players.

The Harbor Playhouse traces its non-profit theater history back to February 12, 1925. On that date a group recruited by a newspaper advertisement and directed by Marie Marion Barnett, did a single performance of Booth Tarkington's "Seventeen" at the old high school on Carancahua Street. Miss Barnett was an actress stranded in Corpus Christi at the close of a two-year tour by a traveling stock company. She became the director of the group, which usually called itself the Corpus Christi Players, and produced an average of four plays a year. For the next 23 years this performing group struggled, disbanded during the depression in 1936, and began again in 1940. As the years progressed, Wynn Seale Middle School, on Ayers Street, was utilized as a home for the community theater productions.

Incorporating under the name of "Little Theater" in August of 1948, the theater group performed at a variety of locations including Wynn Seale Middle School Auditorium, the White Plaza Hotel, the Gillespie Show Room and the Town Club until building its own facility - The Little Theater Building - at 5523 South Alameda in October of 1950. The building was a Quonset hut facility that was to be the home of community theater in Corpus Christi for almost twenty-seven years.

The Little Theater became The Harbor Playhouse when it moved to its present location at #1 Bayfront Park in 1976. The present building was built on city-owned land with funds provided by the Earl C. Sams Foundation and was completed in 1976. The building was a gift from the Earl C. Sams Foundation to the city and people of Corpus Christi. Soon after construction, the building itself was donated back to the City of Corpus Christi. The first production, "1776", opened in April, 1976 in the new 478 seat auditorium. In it's current arrangement with the City of Corpus Christi, the Harbor Playhouse organization leases the facility from the City of Corpus Christi in renewable 20 year leases.

In the intervening years, several additions and modifications were added to the existing building and the Harbor Playhouse improved and expanded its scope. Today, the Harbor Playhouse is recognized as one of the oldest and finest community theaters in Texas. It has added a very important cultural dimension to the Coastal Bend area which is enjoyed by residents of all ages.