Chickering Hall (New York City, 1875) Explained

Chickering Hall
Address:	437 Fifth Avenue at 18th Street
City:	New York City
Location:	Manhattan
Owner:	Chickering & Sons
Capacity:	1,450
Built:	1870s
Closed:	1893
Demolished:	1901
Cost:	$175,000 (Inflation:)
Architect:	George B. Post

Chickering Hall (1875 - 1893) was a concert and music hall in Manhattan, New York City, New York, located on Fifth Avenue.^[1]

History

Chickering Hall, commissioned by Chickering & Sons, was situated at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 18th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was designed by the American architect George B. Post and F.C. Murray.^[2] Opening on November 15, 1875, it housed a music store, piano warehouse, and concert hall.^[3] Above the ground-level salesroom, its 1,450-seat auditorium, located on the second and third floors, hosted concerts, lectures, and conferences.^[4]

The concert hall was managed by Edward H. Colell in 1891 and still under the ownership of Chickering and Sons.^[5] In 1893, the building was entirely repurposed into a retail space for John Wanamaker's department store, taking over city piano sales.^[3]

The original Chickering Hall building in New York City was sold and demolished in the early 1900s. Chickering & Sons merged with the American Piano Company who later established a new building in the borough of Manhattan on 57th Street under the same name in 1924.^[6]

Events & Performances

• 5th International Congress of Ophthalmology, September 12-14, 1876^[7]
• Robert G. Ingersoll lecture, February 3, 1878^[8]
• Chamber music of New York Philharmonic with Ema Pukšec, Sebastian Bach Mills, Ferdinand Quentin Dulcken, and more, April 1, 1879^[9]
• 15th Annual Commencement of the New York College of Dentistry, February 23, 1881^[10]
• Oscar Wilde, English Renaissance lecture, January 9, 1882^[11]
• Kneisel Quartet, Pol Plançon, Antoinette Szumowska, and more, February 8, 1898^[12]
• Frederic Farrar lecture, October 29, 1885^[13]

See also

• Chickering Hall (Boston, 1883)
• Chickering Hall (Boston, 1901)
• Chickering and Sons

Notes and References

1. Appleton's General Guide to the United States and Canada. (1891). United Kingdom: Black.
2. Stokes, I. N. P. (1915). The iconography of Manhattan Island. United States: Dodd.
3. Web site: Chickering Hall à New York, from "Moniteur des Architectes. metmuseum.org. 2024-09-14.
4. Ingersoll, E. (1891). A Week in New York. United States: Rand, Mc Nally & Company.
5. New York Amusement Gazette. (1891). United States: F. T. Low..
6. Poor's...1925. (1925). United States: Poor's Publishing Company.
7. Report of the Fifth International Ophthalmological Congress: Held in New York, Sept. 1876.... (1877). United States: D. Appleton & Company.
8. Ingersoll, R. G. (1878). "Hell": Lecture [at] Chickering Hall, New York, February 3d, 1878. United States: E. McCormack.
9. Concert program, 1 Apr 1879, Program ID 10110, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon Levy Digital Archives.https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/f5e83c34-26a9-4027-923b-51cef82b0bb3-0.1
10. The Dental Cosmos. (1881). United States: S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company.
11. Oscar Wilde: Interviews and Recollections Volume I. (1979). United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
12. Bradley, W., Plançon, P. (1898). Program: Opening Concert Friday Evening, February 8th. United States: Chickering & Sons.
13. Farrar, F. W. (1866). Temperance Address, Delivered at Chickering Hall, New York, October 29, 1885. United States: John B. Alden.