New York's First Battery was one of a number of militia groups formed throughout the United States in the years following the Civil War to manage domestic peacekeeping and to intervene in labor disputes, which became increasingly common in the late nineteenth century. Up until 1900, the battery was located above a saloon on West 44th Street. The battery's captain, Louis Wendel, was well-connected in city politics and Tammany Hall, and when a commission was formed to establish ten new armories in the city, Wendel used his influence to secure a new headquarters for the First Battery.Construction on the new armory began in 1901. The project was awarded to the architectural firm of Horgan and Slattery, which also had numerous Tammany Hall connections and was regarded as the favored firm for most public projects. The firm itself was often a source of controversy, with the New York Times once publishing an editorial that questioned whether the architects existed, and if they did, how they had the resources to complete every major city project. The building was designed to be reminiscent of a medieval castle, complete with a turret and crenelated facade. It was something of an unusual design for the time, as most armories built in the early twentieth century were beginning to depart from the battlement-like design that dominated armory design for many years. Though designed as the headquarters of the First Battery, the building largely served to host public entertainment events. Wrestling and boxing matches, in particular, were common occurrences in the building up through the 1940s, by which point military use of the building had almost completely ceased. In 1976, ABC acquired the building and began renovations to convert the property into a television studio.During the renovation of the building, much of the original interior features were either destroyed or substantially altered. The exterior, however, remained largely as it was when the building was completed in 1904. In 2012, the building was again rehabilitated for use as a commercial office space.

Manhattan's First Battery Armory was built between 1901 and 1904 and served as an armory until 1977. At that time, the building was renovated and began to be used as a television studio for ABC. Though the building's interior was extensively renovated, much of its castellated exterior remained intact. In 2012, the television studio was demolished and the building was renovated for use as commercial office space. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a New York City Landmark.

First Battery Armory 

Begin on Central Park West (CPW) near W. 61st St. & walk up CPW by high-rise apartment buildings including the one made famous in the movie "Ghostbusters", then head west by an art studio & armory to the Lincoln Center complex.

The street along the western edge of the newly-created Central Park was known as Eighth Avenue in the 1860s and was sparsely developed; the portion of the street adjacent to the park came to be known as Central Park West by the 1890s. The block of Central Park West between W. 61st and W. 62nd Street (futire location for The Hotel Mayflower) was developed by 1894 with four brick buildings in the south half of the block and one brick building and a brick stable on the north half of the block (see the Bromley map image below). One of these buildings was the birthplace in 1898 of composer Vincent Youmans (known for the song "Tea for Two" from "No, No Nanette").The general contractor for construction of The Hotel Mayflower in 1926 was Joseph E. Gilbert. The architect, Emery Roth, left his mark on a number of buildings along this street and elsewhere in town. The hotel was generally known as a unpretentious place to stay overlooking Central Park but had a few notable occupants, including the producer of the first silent Felix the Cat cartoon films, Patrick Sullivan (1885-1933).The owners in 1982 reportedly stripped The Hotel Mayflower's terra cotta ornamentation - pilasters, cherubim, swags - from its exterior; the New York Times called the hotel a "drab brown" building in 2004. Developers William and Arthur Zeckendorf purchased the hotel and several adjacent lots for over $400 million in 2004. A liquidation sale at the hotel in 2004 offered everything from a Yamaha baby grand piano for $6,500 to dozens of pedestal sinks and television sets.The last four residents of the rent-controlled apartments in The Hotel Mayflower were not allowed to be evicted, by terms of their leases. The bachelors had resided in their respective, tiny apartments in the north half of the hotel for 30 to 35 years. The men earned from a million to 17 million dollars apiece for their trouble to move someplace else, with the last holdout costing the Zeckendorfs the most. One was a 98-year-old with relatives in Mexico. Another was a former show-business agent in his 90s. The third was the son of famed World War II U.S. General Douglas MacArthur and was living under an assumed name to escape the shadow of his famous father. The last holdout had been living two floors above the building's highest elevator landing and had no desire to leave his home since 1974. A genius with multiple degrees in physics and a medical degree, he wanted another apartment with as nice of a view - the apartment had views of Central Park, the East River, and the Hudson River. The final tenant even held his ground after the developers began demolishing the southern end of the hotel. Eventually, he settled for a $2 million condo in the Essex House and another $15 million. In return, the developers received the princely sum of a dollar in monthly rent on the condo, paid for ten years in advance with a $120 check. The individual almost completed their ten-year stay in the Essex House, living there for a dollar per month until his death at age 80 in 2011.

Commemorated today by a bench on Broadway that bears a small plaque funded as a memorial to the former New York landmark, Hotel Mayflower stood for nearly eight decades at this location before being demolished and replaced by 15 Central Park West Hotel Mayflower was a 15-story building that stretched between W. 61st and W. 62nd Streets. The structure was one of seven buildings on this street that were designed by the prolific architect Emery Roth between 1926 and 1930. The apartment hotel was constructed in 1926 and overlooked Central Park which is across the street. Hotel Mayflower was listed in the New York and National Registers in 1982, but by that time, the aging, 365-room hotel was being targeted by real estate developers who hoped to demolish the structure. The property was sold to developers in 2004. After spending millions to buy out and relocate the last remaining tenants in rent-controlled apartments on the upper floors, the building was demolished to build the high-rise condominium building that now occupies the space, with the entrance at 15 Central Park West.

Hotel Mayflower (1926-2004)

Surprisingly, the entire Central Park West block between W. 62nd and W. 63rd Streets was still undeveloped in 1894 (see the image below); the remainder of the lots up to Broadway were sparsely developed with wood frame buildings. The Central Park West block later became the location of the Century Theater, built in 1908. The Century Theater served as an opera house and had a rooftop nightclub, the Coconut Grove, but suffered from being in a relatively remote part of town when it came to entertainment. The Shuberts, who bought the theater in 1920, exchanged the property with Irwin S. Chanin for his interest in several Times square theaters. The abandoned Century Theater building was demolished in 1930.Century Apartments took over $6 million to build and opened in 1931. News of the construction project's roughly 1,500 jobs was good news in the Great Depression era. The massive building was designed by the office of Irwin S. Chanin and built by Chanin Construction Company.The Century Apartments property was bought in 1982 and the owners struggled for years to turn the building into a co-op. The cost offered to apartment dwellers was said to be too high, and the new owners reportedly let the building's conditions deteriorate. Eventually, a few hundred of the 410 apartments' dwellers were able to buy into the co-op at below market value by 1989.Century Condominiums has been home to famed composed George Gershwin and Friends' Matthew Perry. Billionaire Jeff Bezos owned four units in the building worth $17.5 million including the penthouse with an observatory, and bought multiple floors of the building in 2019 and 2020. The building now houses 410 condominiums that are listed in 2021 at slightly over $1 million in the one-bedroom size to more than $10 million for a five-bedroom unit.

Completed in 1931, this Art Deco skyscraper at 25 Central Park West was named is a block-wide with twin thirty-story towers. The building's name was a nod to the Century Theater, a grand venue that opened at this location in 1909 and was renowned for its architecture but notorious for its poor acoustics and demolished in 1930. In keeping with Art Deco styles, the top of each tower features rounded geometric elements. The curtain walls of yellow brick are interspersed with bands of brown brick, giving the building a tapestry-like appearance. The Century was listed in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places in 1982 as part of the Central Park West Historic District. The building has been the Century Condominiums since the 1980s.

Century Apartments (Century Condominiums)

Planning for Central Park began in the 1850s. At that time, the area was home to several communities of recent immigrants and there was also a community of African American homeowners around present-day 82nd, street, a vibrant community known as Seneca Village. After the city acquired the land, builders were still slow to develop the area around Central Park as most residents still lived in other parts of the growing city. In the 1860s, one building faced the park on Eighth Avenue (now Central Park West along the park border) between W. 64th and W. 65th Streets: a two-story structure near the middle of the block (see the 1863 map clip below). The structure was gone by 1894 and no buildings stood on the lots that would become home to Harperly Hall (see the 1894 map below).Henry Wilhelm Wilkinson designed Harperly Hall in 1907 combining elements of Arts and crafts and Neo-Italian Renaissance styles. Wilkinson named the building for an ancestral manor house from County Durham, England. The central courtyard, side street (W. 64th St.) main entrance, and Juliet balconies set this building apart from its neighbors. The bricks are rough-surfaced and laid in patterns that remind some of a shag rug.The apartments at Harperly Hall were advertised for rent in 1912 from $850 to $2,500 for two-, three- and eight-room apartments; some had kitchenettes. The building included a restaurant and the rent later included "refrigeration," a term used for early air conditioning following the 1902 invention of Willis Carrier for a system originally designed to reduce humidity inside a printing plant. (Four years later, Carrier patented "an apparatus for treating air." A furnished apartment on the top floor was advertised for rent in 1917 at $4,800; this apartment featured tiled floors, two fireplaces, a 26-foot square living room, and a balcony overlooking Central Park.The singer Madonna used to live in Harperly Hall, with her husband Sean Penn and continued to live here after their divorce. The Material Girl sold her co-op unit in 2013 for $16 million. Harperly Hall currently holds about 85 co-op residential units, and units sold recently from $850,000 for a one-bedroom/ apartment up to nearly $5 million for a four-bedroom/eight-room unit. Larger units (six bedrooms/ 15 rooms) are advertised for nearly $19 million.

Constructed from 1909 to 1911, Harperly Hall is a U-shaped apartment building of 11 stories overlooking Central Park. The main entrance faces south onto W. 64th Street. The brown brick building with a limestone base and terra cotta trim was the first apartment building in the Central Park West area to be organized as a co-operative and offered 76 units when it opened. The structure has been listed in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places since 1982 as part of the Central Park West Historic District. The building is still a residential co-op. The music icon Madonna lived in the building until she sold her apartment in 2013.

Harperly Hall

The Prasada took the place of empty lots (as seen on an 1894 map, below) when it was built in 1904 by Franklin and Samuel Haines. The building's distinctive loggia is Italian baroque in style with rusticated columns and "PRASADA" inscribed on the frieze; the architects were Charles W. Romeyn and Henry R. Wynne. The first and seventh bays of the main facade feature bowed iron windows, and there are heavy cornices supported by foliated brackets at the third, fourth, and tenth floors. The four sides of the building abut a central courtyard. The Prasada is next door to another apartment building, Harperly Hall (also a Clio entry) of roughly the same size and age.Haines Realty Company sold The Prasada in 1909 to Judge Nash Rockwood; for part of the deal, Rockwood gave a nine-story building at 12 Fifth Avenue. Yearly rents in 1909 ranged from $2,200 to $3,600, and each floor only contained three apartments. A 1911 newspaper ad for The Prasada boasted of the building's apartments of eight to ten rooms with two and three baths, with "every convenience and improvement, including foyer, pantry, free refrigeration, etc."The Prasada was acquired in late 1918 by Walter Russell and Penrhyn Stanlaws, artists and developers of the Sixty-seventh Street studio colony. In the spring of 1919, the building was about to be altered and remodeled throughout as part of converting the building to become simultaneously a dwelling, a club, and a hotel. Fred T. Ley Company was the contractor, using plans drawn up by Starrett and Van Vleck, at a projected cost of $1,350,000. The old mansard roof was replaced with a new twelfth story below a new roof. To give the residents and hotel guests space for "recreation and amusement," the ground floor was redesigned to include tea rooms, writing rooms, recreation rooms, dining rooms, grill rooms, and retiring rooms. A swimming pool was planned for the basement. Each apartment in the new apartments would have "all modern appliances for scientific cooking" but a dumbwaiter could be used to send the dishes down to the building's kitchens to be prepared instead. In 1922, a fireproof bulkhead was added to the new roof to function as servants' quarters.The Prasada was converted into a co-operative in 1973 and remains one to this day. Most of the apartments now cover about 2,000 square feet, though some one-bedroom units are just 650 square feet. Alas, the grand plans from 1918 didn't all come to pass - the building has no pool or health club.

The highrise facing Central Park at 50 Central Park West is the Prasada, built in 1904 as an apartment building with large apartments of eight to ten rooms. The mansard roof, which was barely still in style when the building was constructed, was removed in 1919 and the 12th story was rebuilt with a masonry facade and a new roof. The Prasada Apartments was listed in the National Register in 1982 as part of the Central Park West Historic District. The building has been a residential co-op since 1973 and now contains about 50 units.

The Prasada

55 Central Park West is next door to Trinity Lutheran Church. In the early twentieth century, another apartment building, The Courtenay, stood at 55 Central Park West. The Courtenay featured only one apartment per floor and was built sometime between 1894 and 1908. In 1894, the lots were still undeveloped (see the attached image). The property belonged to C. Kimberly in the mid-nineteenth century, stretching from the future W. 65th to W. 67th Streets (as drawn on a later map from 1866).The intricate stone patterns and colors on the first three floors of the high-rise are echoed in the building's tower and have been likened to flames. One unusual feature is the shading of the bricks on the exterior: they range from dark purple near the ground level and fade to a lighter purple as you look upwards, and then to a pale yellow. The effect is meant to give the appearance of the sun always shining on the building. One of the early tenants in the building in the 1930s was Ginger Rogers. More recent occupants included designer Calvin Klein and actress Marsha Mason. Klein got in trouble with the building's management by installing a hot tub on the roof of his duplex penthouse in the 1980s. The building has been operated as a co-operative since the late 1940s.In addition to "The Shandor," some refer to the building as "Spook Central" owing to a line in the movie Ghostbusters referring to the high number of paranormal events at 55 Central Park West in the 1984 blockbuster. The extra upper eight floors, rooftop temple, and gargoyles that appear in the movie aren't actually here - they were constructed on a sound stage in Hollywood.Fifty-five Central Park West was considered mid-range in the luxury scale of its contemporaries. Apartments ranged from three to nine rooms and up to four bedrooms. A dropped living room was a common design feature in this building. This design feature was rarely seen in apartments, but millions of American families were introduced to the design by the famous opening of The Dick Van Dyke Show. In this building, what was unusual was the dropped living room was almost completely open to the entrance gallery instead of the gallery being its own space.

The eighteen-story apartment building at 55 Central Park West was built from 1929 to 1930 in the Art Deco style of architecture. Since the 1984 release of the movie Ghostbusters, the stately high-rise building is sometimes called "The Shandor" by residents and visitors, the building's fictional name from the hit 1984 movie, Fifty-five Central Park West was designed by Schwartz &amp; Gross, one of the most prolific architectural firms represented along Central Park West. The building is now run as a co-op and holds 109 units. It is listed as part of the National Register's Central Park West Historic District.

55 Central Park West ("The Shandor" in the Movie Ghostbusters)

The Upper West Side's West 67th Street Artists' Colony began in 1903 when a group of artists purchased a plot on the street for $250,000. Although the phrase "artists' colony" might conjure images of struggling creative types, the artists who bought the land were actually quite successful. The eighteen story Hotel d'Artistes, in particular, is adorned with gargoyles and sculptures, as well as a Medieval-inspired lobby and a swimming pool. Each of the eight buildings that comprise the district was constructed with artists in mind. Many feature 14-foot-high north-facing windows in double height rooms, to maximize the amount of natural light. Most of the buildings were built by cooperatives of artists and creative sorts, who then either lived in them or rented them to cover their expenses. The buildings were constructed at a time when New York was an increasingly popular destination for artists, writers, and musicians, but there were few apartments in the city that suited their needs for space and light.&nbsp; In spite of its name, the Hotel d'Artistes, the largest and most ornate of the buildings in the district, was never actually a hotel. To get around building codes for apartments that limited height, the building was designed with hotel-like amenities. Over the years, the building has been home to numerous acclaimed artists, including Isadora Duncan, Rudolph Valentino, Norman Rockwell, and Noel Coward. Another of the building's famous residents was Howard Chandler Christy. The acclaimed artist painted a series of murals featuring frolicking nudes in the communal dining room. (Originally, the apartments did not include kitchens.) The dining room is now a restaurant, Leopard at des Artistes, and the murals are still there. Though a number of the district's current residents have connections to the arts, but it is no longer exclusively an artists' enclave. Apartments in the district, particularly those in the Hotel d'Artistes, sell for millions. The district is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.&nbsp;

The West 67th Street Artists' Colony Historic District consists of eight buildings, the most prominent of which is the Hotel d'Artistes. The district is the only concentration of artists' studios and apartments in Manhattan. Built in the early 1900s, the buildings were designed with artists in mind, and many feature larger than normal windows, to allow in natural light. The largest of the buildings, the Hotel d'Artistes, was actually never a hotel; it was designed with hotel-like amenities to get around building height restrictions for apartments.

Hotel d'Artistes and the West 67th Street Artists' Colony Historic District 

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp, considered by many to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, was born July 28th, 1887 in Blainville, France. While France was his birthplace, it's clear Duchamp found his home in the U.S. seeing as after his first visit in 1915, he would continue to make trips to the states until settling permanently in 1942, and obtaining citizenship in 1955.Duchamp’s time in America would shape him, and in turn he would shape the art scene. One of Duchamp’s most infamous works, ‘Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2)’  would make its first real waves in the U.S. in 1913. The hostile reaction and controversy surrounding the piece would begin a growing theme in Duchamp’s career.  In his art, Duchamp would hone in on specific concepts, one of which being self-representation. Duchamp’s display of self-expression didn’t restrict itself to the art he produced explicitly, as he would often put out art under various pseudonyms, and personas under which he would express himself differently, one of his most iconic pieces ‘The Fountain’ was published under the pseudonym R.Mutt. The nature of these pseudonyms were more of characters for Duchamp to play with, most prominently, Rrose Selavy. Rrose Selavy was a woman who’s name was a pun on the phrase, ‘Eros is Life’ who Duchamp would picture himself as in 1921. Moreover, this portraiture would define a great portion of Duchamp’s self expression, and he would make prolific exploration of his own image. Duchamp would stretch the boundaries of his portraiture, some of which he presented as wanted posters, mugshots, and more. It’s seen through these works of Duchamp that they were a personal way for him to communicate, interact, and respond to the world around.Duchamp would follow up on his controversial reputation by challenging the way art is made, and presented, through the use of his ‘readymades’. Pioneered by Duchamp, readymades are works of art made from majorly unchanged manufactured objects. The intended core of the readymades was the conceptual value behind them. The lack of intrinsic creation would be the initial point of contention regarding readymades, which already plays into a long withstanding debate about what defines art. Regardless, Duchamp was distancing himself from traditional forms of art, specifically the idea of skill, and the technical appeal of art. Irony, and verbal wit would supplement what was lost in the creation of readymades, which was more befitting of Duchamp’s person. The essence of this type of art is most iconically displayed in Duchamp’s ‘The Fountain’ which was simply a urinal turned on it’s side. Naturally, such a crude piece being presented as art spurred controversy that suited Duchamp, and his revolutionary sensibility. The ideas presented by Duchamp appealed heavily to the dada movement, a movement that thrived heavily on nonsense and satire, and Duchamp was even pushing the envelope within it, and testing limits through his subversion.

This building contains French-American artist Marcel Duchamp's first New York Studio. In this specific studio, Duchamp made one of his most infamous pieces, known as 'Fountain'. The Fountain itself is just a porcelain urinal turned on it's side, signed  "R. Mutt 1917". Despite it's appearance, the piece is widely cited as a landmark piece in Avant grade art. Outside of the Fountain, Duchamp is renowned for his massive contributions, and revolutionary developments into painting, sculpture, and multiple styles of art such as surrealism, and Dadaism in the New York art scene.

Marcel Duchamp's New York Art Studio

New York's First Battery was one of a number of militia groups formed throughout the United States in the years following the Civil War to manage domestic peacekeeping and to intervene in labor disputes, which became increasingly common in the late nineteenth century. Up until 1900, the battery was located above a saloon on West 44th Street. The battery's captain, Louis Wendel, was well-connected in city politics and Tammany Hall, and when a commission was formed to establish ten new armories in the city, Wendel used his influence to secure a new headquarters for the First Battery. Construction on the new armory began in 1901. The project was awarded to the architectural firm of Horgan and Slattery, which also had numerous Tammany Hall connections and was regarded as the favored firm for most public projects. The firm itself was often a source of controversy, with the New York Times once publishing an editorial that questioned whether the architects existed, and if they did, how they had the resources to complete every major city project. The building was designed to be reminiscent of a medieval castle, complete with a turret and crenelated facade. It was something of an unusual design for the time, as most armories built in the early twentieth century were beginning to depart from the battlement-like design that dominated armory design for many years. Though designed as the headquarters of the First Battery, the building largely served to host public entertainment events. Wrestling and boxing matches, in particular, were common occurrences in the building up through the 1940s, by which point military use of the building had almost completely ceased. In 1976, ABC acquired the building and began renovations to convert the property into a television studio.During the renovation of the building, much of the original interior features were either destroyed or substantially altered. The exterior, however, remained largely as it was when the building was completed in 1904. In 2012, the building was again rehabilitated for use as a commercial office space.

In the 1950s, the Lincoln Square neighborhood in Manhattan was in a decline. In order to confront this growing problem, Robert Moses and the Mayor's Slum Clearance Committee announced the "Lincoln Square Renewal Project." The chosen chairman for the project was the most wealthy man in New York, John D. Rockefeller III, who ordered the construction of a large cultural complex. To mark the significance of this massive project, even President Dwight Eisenhower attended the groundbreaking in May of 1959. However crucial the building of a prominent arts center was to Moses and Rockefeller, the building came at a cost that sparked controversy. The neighborhood, also called "San Juan Hill," was a vibrant area that had a rich history and mainly was made up of Hispanics and African Americans. When the order came for Lincoln Center to be built, move than 7,000 families, mostly lower-class, and 800 businesses found themselves displaced. Assistance for relocation could not be found, and many moved to places such as Harlem and the Bronx.In 1961, John D. Rockefeller III was named Chairman of Lincoln Center and the first performance center, Philharmonic Hall, opened in 1962 with many notable attendees such as Lady Bird Johnson and President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. In 1964 the New York State Theater opened, followed by the Metropolitan Opera House in 1966 and the Julliard School in 1969. Throughout the 1970s, Lincoln Center continued to grow in prominence and in 1976 PBS aired the first live telecast from the Center. By the mid 1980s, managers at Lincoln Center were looking to "Americanize" the music, and in 1987, jazz concerts were introduced.Forty years after it was built, Lincoln Center underwent a massive modernization led by British architect Norman Foster that was estimated at over a billion dollars. The redevelopment brought in new buildings such as the Clair Tow Theater and the Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a new Alice Tully Hall. Since the early 1960s, there have been various architects to take on projects at Lincoln Center and its numerous buildings, they include: Max Abramovitz (Philharmonic Hall), Philip Johnson (Lincoln Center Fountain and the New York State Theater), Eero Saarinen (Vivian Beaumont Theater), Wallace K. Harrison (Metropolitan Opera House), and Pietro Belluschi (Julliard School). In total, more than thirty indoor and outdoor spaces encompass Lincoln Center and more than ten performance groups are based there. With more than five million people from all over the world coming to Lincoln Center, it has lived up to Rockefeller's vision of being a performing arts center for the masses that is recognized across the globe.

Located in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan, Lincoln Center is the quintessential home for the performing arts. Lincoln Center covers more than sixteen acres and is home to the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, and more. John D. Rockefeller III spearheaded the creation of Lincoln Center, looking to renew the deteriorating Lincoln Square neighborhood. Rockefeller was also the chief fundraiser, bringing in $185 million for the formation.  Lincoln Center is now one of the most famous performing arts centers in the world, bringing in more than five million people from all over the globe and from all walks of life in every year. 

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts 

The collections now housed at the New York
Public Library for the Performing Arts (or LPA) were originally stored at two public libraries in the system:&nbsp;the
main branch, now named the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (the research collections
for dance, music and theatre), and the 58th Street branch
(the circulating music collection). The idea of a separate building to house the
collections was broached as early as 1932, but it was only after Lincoln Center
was incorporated in 1956 that planning actually began. The library was combined in the same building&nbsp;with the Vivian Beaumont
Theater (also part of Lincoln Center) to save costs. The LPA was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) in the International Style to match the style of the rest of Lincoln Center. The Beaumont occupies the northern side of the
building while the&nbsp;LPA's first and second floors occupy the southern and
western sides, with the library’s third floor research collections providing
the roof. On the plaza near the entrance is a large stabile, designed by famous sculptor Alexander Calder, titled "Le Guichet." The LPA houses the following collections: The Billy Rose Theatre Division - This division&nbsp;contains an enormous collection of personal papers and organizational records,
scrapbooks, photographs, posters, programs, reviews and scripts.&nbsp;It also provide
access to an array of traditional published books and journals, as
well as a circulating collection of theatre books, scripts, videos and music. Particularly noteworthy is&nbsp;the division's&nbsp;efforts to document live theatre through the Theatre on Film and Tape (TOFT) Archive.&nbsp;Since 1970, TOFT has been photographing theatrical productions with the approval of
Actor’s Equity; there are over 5000 tapes in the archive,
including the original production of the classic musical A Chorus Line.&nbsp;“Last year we had researchers from 35 countries
and 47 states, with quite a few artists from regional theatres throughout the
United States,” says TOFT archive Director Patrick Hoffman. The Jerome Robbins Dance Division - Chronicling the art of dance in all its
forms - ballet, ethnic, modern, social and folk - the division is
part museum,
part film production center and part consulting service to the world of professional
dance. The Jerome Robbins Archive of the Recorded
Moving Image, the film and videotape archive of the division,
began when the library first opened in 1965, with six cans of
film donated by choreographer Jerome Robbins. The archive has grown to over 25,000 film and video titles. The Music Division&nbsp;- Documenting the diverse art of music - classical, popular and world music alike -&nbsp;the division's&nbsp;curatorial mandate places major emphasis on capturing the creative output of contemporary
composers.&nbsp;This division also contains&nbsp;the American Music
Collection, which includes documents like the first edition of "The
Star-Spangled Banner," native American songs,&nbsp;and manuscript
collections of American composers&nbsp;like Henry
Cowell, John Cage and Louis Moreau Gottschalk. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded
Sound&nbsp;- The archives'&nbsp;holdings cover virtually every type of recorded&nbsp;sound, from&nbsp;orchestral works and pop recordings to
speeches, radio programs&nbsp;and TV shows.&nbsp;It is both a&nbsp;research facility for performers, musicians, scholars and&nbsp;critics, and a leader in recording preservation efforts,&nbsp;as it&nbsp;is continually developing
technology&nbsp;to transfer sound from obsolete to accessible
formats. Recently, a&nbsp;journalist, reporting on the 50th
anniversary of the library’s opening, was shown manuscripts
written by Mozart and Beethoven, the score of a musical written by the novelist F. Scott
Fitzgerald when he was at Princeton, a first edition of the Gershwin opera Porgy
and Bess and the original handwritten liner notes by jazz pianist Bill
Evans for the classic Miles Davis album Kind of Blue.
She was also shown wax cylinder recordings of the Metropolitan Opera from
the early 20th Century; costume sketches for ballerina Natalya
Goncharova for Igor Stravinsky’s composition, Les Noces, choreographed by
Nijinsky; and&nbsp;models for stage sets for the musical Cabaret,
including a miniature model of actor Joel Grey.

This branch of the New York Public Library is part of the Lincoln Center complex and is home of one of the world's largest collections of library materials related to the performing arts. These materials may be viewed free of charge and some may be checked out to library card holders. The library also offers special programs such as special exhibitions of materials from its collections, lectures performances, and traveling exhibits. The library is located near the north side of the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center Plaza and shares a building with the Vivian Beaumont Theater.  

The library includes the Billy Rose Theatre Division, one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive archives devoted to the theatrical arts; the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, the largest and most comprehensive archive in the world devoted to the documentation of dance; the Music Division, which contains one of the world's preeminent music collections; and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, one of the richest resources of recorded sound in the world. 

The library has been open since 1965. In 2015, the library was voted Best Public Library by the Village Voice. “If you need to catch up on your John Ford westerns or map the differences and similarities between the styles of Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham, or get to the bottom, once and for all, of the sound of John Cage," the Village Voice reported, "the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is where you want to be.”

Lower Central Park West to Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts Historical Walking Tour

First Battery Armory

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources