La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

74 East 4th Street | East Village | built 1900

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1873

    November 7

    The Aschenbroedel Verein opens a musicians' clubhouse

    German-born architect August H. Blankenstein designed the four-story clubhouse for the Aschenbroedel Verein, a benevolent association of professional orchestral musicians, which opened on November 7, 1873. Members included conductors Theodore Thomas, Carl Bergmann, and Walter Damrosch, and the hall's name recalled the German Cinderella tale, Aschenbrödel.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1892

    November 15

    The Schillerbund Gesangverein remodels the hall's facade

    After the German choral society Schillerbund Gesangverein bought the building in 1892, architects Kurtzer & Rohl redesigned its facade for $45,000, adding cast-iron ornament and busts of Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven above the second-floor windows. The renovated hall reopened on November 15, 1892.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1905

    Jack Sullivan's Newsboys' Athletic Club takes over the hall

    From 1905 to 1911 the former German musicians' hall housed the Newsboys' Athletic Club, founded by Jack Sullivan, known as the "King of the Newsboys." The building passed through several other uses afterward, including apartments, a Polish social club, and later a meatpacking plant and laundry.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1969

    Ellen Stewart's La MaMa theater moves into the former hall

    Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, which she had founded as a small cafe theater in 1961, moved into the former musicians' hall in 1969. The company has continued to perform there for decades, producing more than 3,000 shows and winning over 60 Obie Awards.

    Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org

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