Lenox Lyceum

The story

Built in 1889 to give New York City a dedicated symphony hall, the Lenox Lyceum opened on January 2, 1890, and almost immediately became something more complicated than its founders intended. Its ballroom and theatre made it useful for dances, banquets, and exhibitions alongside orchestral concerts. By 1908 it was a German-language repertory house, then a vaudeville theatre run by the William Morris Agency, then a Marcus Loew cinema. Each reinvention compressed into barely two decades told the story of a city that could not sit still.