Aeolian Building
33 West 42nd Street | also 32 West 43rd Street, 29 West 42nd Street | Midtown | built 1912
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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.
- 1856
The Latting Observatory, a wooden tower beside the Crystal Palace, burns down on 42nd Street
The Latting Observatory, a wooden tower raised in 1853 beside the Crystal Palace on the north side of 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, burns down on August 30, 1856, on the lot where the Aeolian Building later rose. The fire starts after midnight in a cooper's shop at 49 West 43rd Street and destroys more than twelve buildings, though no injuries are known. The tower's owner, the Hydeville Marble Works, loses $100,000 in merchandise and structures.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1912
Warren & Wetmore's Aeolian Building opens with a 1,100-seat concert hall
Architects Whitney Warren and Charles Wetmore designed the 17-story building for the Aeolian Company, a piano and instrument maker, completing it in 1912. The first two floors held Aeolian Hall, a 1,100-seat concert venue considered one of the era's premier halls. The tower rose 260 feet on West 42nd Street.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1922
The Aeolian Company sells the building to Schulte Cigar Stores
In 1922 the Schulte Cigar Stores Company bought the building from the Aeolian Company for more than $5 million, ending the piano maker's ownership of the tower it had built a decade earlier. Aeolian Hall continued operating as a concert venue on the lower floors after the sale.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1923
Radio station WJZ moves into a new studio in the Aeolian Hall Building
Radio Age reports that the old WJZ has closed down and that the station has settled into the Aeolian Hall Building, a more modern location at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Engineers of the Radio Corporation built a super-station there, and C. B. Popenoe left the old station to manage its programs. The operator's last log entry at the old studio recorded that WJZ had signed off and all was well.
Source: lantern.mediahist.org
- 1924
George Gershwin premieres Rhapsody in Blue in Aeolian Hall
On February 12, 1924, Paul Whiteman's orchestra gave a concert titled 'An Experiment in Modern Music' in Aeolian Hall, the 1,100-seat venue on the building's lower floors. Near the end of the program, George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' received its world premiere, with the composer at the piano. The concert is now regarded as a defining event of the Jazz Age.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1926
Florence Mills sings jazz-based pieces by William Grant Still at Aeolian Hall
At a January 1926 concert of the International Composers' Guild, the African American Broadway performer Florence Mills appears at Aeolian Hall singing jazz-based pieces by William Grant Still. Her appearance causes a minor sensation.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1961
The CUNY Graduate Center moves into the building
The City University of New York's Graduate Center occupied the building from 1961 to 1999. Today the former Aeolian Company tower is home to the College of Optometry of the State University of New York.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2024
SUNY Optometry stages a centennial concert for Rhapsody in Blue on the site of Aeolian Hall
On the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue's debut, the SUNY College of Optometry holds a one-night tribute concert in its Schwarz Theater at 33 West 42nd Street. The college's foundation partners with Avalanche Arts to present the Avalanche Orchestra and the Broadway performer Mary Callanan. The event recalls the former Aeolian Building and its 1,100-seat concert hall, which stood on the same site.
Source: sunyopt.edu
Further reading
- Aeolian Building (42nd Street)Wikipedia
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