Hispanic Society Museum & Library
613 West 155th Street | Washington Heights | built 1910
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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.
- 1904
Archer Huntington founds the Hispanic Society of America
In 1904, philanthropist Archer M. Huntington founds the Hispanic Society of America to collect and display the art, literature and history of Spain and Latin America. Its collection begins with the private library of the Marquis of Jerez de los Caballeros, bought in 1902. Huntington commissions his cousin, architect Charles P. Huntington, to design the society's Beaux-Arts home on Audubon Terrace.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1908
Archer Huntington opens the Hispanic Society's museum
Archer Milton Huntington founded the Hispanic Society of America on May 18, 1904, and its building at 613 West 155th Street opened on January 20, 1908. It was the first piece of Audubon Terrace, the cultural complex Huntington assembled over the following decades; the city designated the terrace a landmark on January 9, 1979.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1909
The Sorolla exhibition draws nearly 160,000 visitors in five weeks
Soon after the museum opened, Archer Huntington saw Joaquin Sorolla's paintings at London's Grafton Gallery and arranged an exhibition at the society for the following year. It ran from February 4 to March 8, 1909, and drew nearly 160,000 visitors. It was Huntington's first special exhibition and brought acclaim to both painter and museum. It gave him the chance to acquire some of Sorolla's best works, among them After the Bath, Beaching the Boat and Sea Idyl.
Source: hispanicsociety.org
- 1911
Huntington commissions Joaquín Sorolla's "Vision of Spain" murals
In 1911 Huntington commissioned the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla to create a cycle of paintings for the Society. Sorolla worked on the 14 canvases from 1913 to 1919; together they run more than 200 feet. The room built to hold them was reinstalled in 2010.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1926
Sorolla's panorama of Spain's provinces opens to the public
Sorolla finished his huge commission for the society in 1919, but the paintings were not installed and opened to the public until 1926. Huntington and his cousin, the architect Charles Huntington, had planned a western addition to the main building to hold the work.
Source: hispanicsociety.org
- 1927
Anna Hyatt Huntington's bronze El Cid is placed on the lower terrace
After marrying the sculptor Anna Vaughn Hyatt in 1923, Archer Huntington planned permanent sculpture for the terrace in front of the society. A new building on the north side of the terrace, on 156th Street, gave it a setting. In 1927 her large equestrian bronze of El Cid was placed on the lower terrace, and it quickly became the society's unofficial symbol.
Source: hispanicsociety.org
- 1979
The city designates Audubon Terrace a landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission had proposed designating the Audubon Terrace complex, which includes the Hispanic Society's building, in 1966 and again in 1978. Approval came in January 1979. The commission called it a significant example of civic planning and a rare early-twentieth-century cultural complex outside a university campus. It was then the smallest city historic district.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2007
The Dia Art Foundation begins commissioning art and Tuesday events at the society
From 2007 to 2011 the Dia Art Foundation commissioned projects at the society's building on West 155th Street from Francis Alys, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Koo Jeong A. Dia also organized a weekly series, Tuesdays on the Terrace, which offered public outdoor dance, music and poetry.
“Between 2007 and 2011, the Dia Art Foundation commissioned several projects at the Hispanic Society's Building on West 155th Street.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2017
The Hispanic Society closes for a $15 million restoration
The museum closed on January 1, 2017, for a $15 million restoration. A new gallery in the former Museum of the American Indian building next door opened in 2021, and the museum fully reopened in June 2023. That May its workers, who had unionized in 2021, ratified a contract after authorizing a strike in March.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2023
The museum reopens after its unionized staff end a strike
Workers joined a UAW local in 2021 and authorized a strike in March 2023 over the planned reopening. On May 19 they ratified a contract with higher salaries, a retirement plan and fully paid health benefits. The museum, closed since 2017, then held its general reopening in June 2023.
“On May 19, the workers ended the strike after ratifying a contract with the museum.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Hispanic Society of AmericaWikipedia
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