New York City Center

The story

A Shriners' Moorish temple — complete with terracotta arabesques and a sandstone facade on West 55th Street — became one of New York's essential performing arts homes. Developed between 1922 and 1924 as a Masonic meeting house, it passed into city government hands and was repurposed for the stage. Its main auditorium once held more than four thousand people; it has since been scaled back to 2,257 seats. Today it anchors the Encores. series, the Fall for Dance Festival, and serves as home base for the Manhattan Theatre Club.