Symphony Space
2537 Broadway | also 2527 Broadway | Upper West Side | built 2001
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1915
The Astor Market is built at Broadway and 95th Street
The building that now holds Symphony Space was built in 1915–17 as the Astor Market. It later housed the Crystal Palace skating rink and the Sunken Gardens restaurant, both eventually converted into movie theaters. Its Thalia became a well-known repertory film house whose regulars included Woody Allen, Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1917
Vincent Astor sells his failing market, and it becomes a skating rink and a restaurant
After Astor's food hall failed within two years, he sold the building to Thomas J. Healy, who later developed the neighboring Pomander Walk. Healy turned the market's Broadway level into an ice-skating venue, the Crystal Palace, and the smaller basement into a restaurant, the Sunken Gardens. A wartime ammonia shortage in 1918 doomed the ice rink.
Source: symphonyspace.org
- 1931
The Thalia opens in the basement with a floor that dips in the middle
In 1931 a movie house named for the muse of comedy opened in the basement beneath the Symphony Theatre. Architect Ben Schlanger gave the Art Deco Thalia a "parabolic reversed floor" that dipped in the middle, on his theory that every seat would then have an equally good view of a flat screen.
Source: symphonyspace.org
- 1946
The Thalia becomes a haunt for movie buffs, Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese among them
From 1946 the Thalia was known to college students and longtime Upper West Siders as a place to see Hollywood revivals, classics and foreign films. Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese were regular patrons, and Scorsese later said he learned about films there and that it was better than film school.
Source: symphonyspace.org
- 1978
A free Wall to Wall Bach marathon launches Symphony Space
Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller started Symphony Space with a free marathon concert, Wall to Wall Bach, on January 9, 1978. It grew into a performing arts center with two theaters, the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre and the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia, which reopened under that name after renovation in 2002.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1981
Bloomsday on Broadway begins its annual celebration of Joyce's Ulysses
Symphony Space started Bloomsday on Broadway in 1981, an annual literary celebration of James Joyce's Ulysses, named for its main character, Leopold Bloom. Bloomsday is observed worldwide on June 16th, and the Upper West Side version is a yearly spring tribute to Joyce's writing.
Source: symphonyspace.org
- 1985
Isaiah Sheffer and Kay Cattarulla launch Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts debuted in 1985, created by Isaiah Sheffer and Kay Cattarulla, who went on to be the organization's founding producer of literary programs. The series is staged live in the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre and broadcast on more than 150 public radio stations. Sheffer hosted it and took part as a reader until his death in 2012.
Source: symphonyspace.org
- 1996
A decade-long legal battle secures Symphony Space's ownership
The Thalia Theater inside the building had closed in 1987 amid a dispute over a repurchase option held by a former owner. After a ten-year court fight, New York's Court of Appeals ruled the option unenforceable in 1996, finally securing Symphony Space's hold on the property it had leased since 1978.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2000
Symphony Space sells its air rights to fund a $13 million renovation
In 2000, Symphony Space sold the air rights above the theater to the Related Companies, which built a 22-story apartment tower above it. The sale income, plus donations from Peter Norton, the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, and Leonard and Susan Bay Nimoy, paid for a $13 million renovation that folded in the Thalia and set up an endowment.
Source: symphonyspace.org
- 2002
The rebuilt Thalia reopens as the Leonard Nimoy Thalia
After brief reopenings in 1993 and 1996, the Thalia's Art Deco interior was gutted in 1999 and used as a staging area while an apartment tower rose above Symphony Space. The theater was then rebuilt and reopened in 2002 as the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia, named for the actor whose donation funded it.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2018
A one-night reading of Plaza Suite with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick leads to a Broadway run
In January 2018 a new series called At Play, created with actor-director John Benjamin Hickey, began at Symphony Space with a reading of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite. Hickey directed, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick took the leads. The evening was followed by a sold-out Broadway engagement and later a London transfer.
Source: symphonyspace.org
- 2026
Symphony Space announces a $45 million renovation
In 2026 Symphony Space announced a $45 million renovation project for its Broadway building, with completion targeted for 2028. The plan follows decades of piecemeal fixes to a structure that has cycled through uses as a market, skating rink, boxing arena and performing arts center since 1915.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Symphony SpaceWikipedia
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