Hammerstein Ballroom

311 W 34th Street
Located in the historic Manhattan Center building, the Hammerstein Ballroom still stands nearly 100 years after it was first built as the Manhattan Opera House by Oscar Hammerstein I in 1906. Hammerstein built the opera house with the bold intention ... more
Located in the historic Manhattan Center building, the Hammerstein Ballroom still stands nearly 100 years after it was first built as the Manhattan Opera House by Oscar Hammerstein I in 1906. Hammerstein built the opera house with the bold intention to take on the established Metropolitan Opera by featuring cheaper seats for the ordinary New Yorker. The Manhattan Opera house quickly became an alternative venue for many great operas and celebrated singers to make their debut. After four years, the Met could no longer withstand the competition and offered Hammerstein $1.2 million to stop producing opera for a period of ten years. He accepted the offer and began experimenting with different acts before eventually selling the building. In March of 1911, the Shubert brothers opened the hall as a "combination" house featuring vaudeville shows during the week and concerts on Sunday nights. Once again, the Manhattan Opera House provided entertainment for New Yorkers at prices that were much more affordable. Ownership changed again in 1922 when the Manhattan Opera House was purchased by the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry. The Masons built a new building façade as w... more

Located in the historic Manhattan Center building, the Hammerstein Ballroom still stands nearly 100 years after it was first built as the Manhattan Opera House by Oscar Hammerstein I in 1906. Hammerstein built the opera house with the bold intention to take on the established Metropolitan Opera by featuring cheaper seats for the ordinary New Yorker. The Manhattan Opera house quickly became an alternative venue for many great operas and celebrated singers to make their debut.

After four years, the Met could no longer withstand the competition and offered Hammerstein $1.2 million to stop producing opera for a period of ten years. He accepted the offer and began experimenting with different acts before eventually selling the building. In March of 1911, the Shubert brothers opened the hall as a "combination" house featuring vaudeville shows during the week and concerts on Sunday nights. Once again, the Manhattan Opera House provided entertainment for New Yorkers at prices that were much more affordable.

Ownership changed again in 1922 when the Manhattan Opera House was purchased by the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry. The Masons built a new building façade as well as The Grand Ballroom on the seventh floor. In 1926, Warner Brothers chose to set up the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system in The Grand Ballroom to capture the 107-piece New York Philharmonic orchestra for the film Don Juan. This marked the release of the first commercial film featuring a recorded musical soundtrack. Today, more than 75 years later, Manhattan Center continues to be New York’s premier scoring stage due to its superior acoustics.

The name of the building was changed to Manhattan Center in 1940, helping to attract many other types of events. The Manhattan Center became a hot spot for “big band” dances as well as trade shows, union meetings and other social functions. Among the diverse events held here throughout the decades that followed were radio broadcasts, recordings, and performances by the likes of Paul Robeson, Harry Belafonte, Perry Como, Leonard Bernstein, The Grateful Dead and Bob Marley.

Manhattan Center Studios was formed in 1986 to develop the Manhattan Center into a venue capable of hosting multimedia events. Beginning in 1997, the Hammerstein Ballroom underwent a major face-lift to accommodate the demands for a premier event venue in midtown Manhattan. The 12,000 square foot Hammerstein Ballroom remains an elegant pre-war ballroom featuring a hand-painted ceiling mural, ornate woodwork and three balconies overlooking the main room and stage. The 75 foot high ceiling holds many rigging points for production décor and lighting options. Ties to the in-house audio recording studios and video control rooms make the space an incredible venue for productions, special events and webcasts by merging its theatrical past with modern technology. The space accommodates up to 2,500 people for receptions and theatrical productions and 1,000 people for a seated dinner.

Today, clients include top business professionals and the best of the entertainment and cultural world. The beautifully renovated decor, superb acoustics and high level technical services are only a few of the attributes that contribute to the success.


Drag the street view to look around 360°.
Use the arrow buttons to navigate down the street and around the neighborhood!

Chelsea Description

Hammerstein Ballroom is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Once a mixed, low-income neighborhood on the West Side, Chelsea has become a focal point for artists and galleries. It has a wide reputation as Manhattan's gay mecca, and while that has historically been true, rising acceptance of the gay lifestyle—and soaring rents—has led to a dissipation of the community in the neighborhood. These days, Chelsea is, very simply, a bastion of affluence more than any other social status, with the conversion of many apartment buildings to condos and co-ops and the on-rush of multimillion-dollar brownstones and lofts. In the ever-northward shift of Manhattan's masses, the high prices of Greenwich Village and Christopher Street area (which has boasted a large LGBT community since the 1960s) led many to head north to Chelsea in the late 1980s. In that migration, many have already moved on from Chelsea to the northern climes of Hell's Kitchen and Washington Heights, or east to Brooklyn. While Eighth Avenue between 14th and 23rd Streets formerly had one of New York’s highest concentrations of gay-operated restaurants, stores, cafes, the population transfer changed the demographics once again—you'll find much higher concentrations in Hell's Kitchen nowadays. The Chelsea art scene blossomed thanks to the conversion of garages and warehouses between Tenth and Twelfth Avenues, and likely will become a victim of its own success. What SoHo and the 57th Street area lost in stature has been Chelsea’s gain, and almost all the well-established flagship galleries make Chelsea their base. How did it all begin? In 1987, the Dia Center for the Arts—later known as Dia: Chelsea—became one of the pioneers in the area, establishing its main exhibition facility on West 22nd Street. Ironically, after opening its flagship museum Dia: Beacon upstate, it was left without a Manhattan presence. Plans to move down to Greenwich Village and abut the new High Line elevated park were scuttled, and the Whitney instead grabbed the valuable tract that once appealed to Dia. Of course, the High Line further increased property values, thus begetting additional high-rises between Tenth Avenue and West Street, which in turn brought in starchitects like Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel, whose creations can be seen soaring from the earth along West Street. You can learn more about these in our new architecture of Manhattan walking tour. While the ethnic diversity of Chelsea was once truly enviable, the neighborhood still remains one of only a few places where housing ranges from high-rise public housing projects to single-family brownstones to new glass condominiums—even on the same block! Some of Manhattan’s most affordable rent-stabilized apartments can be found between Seventh and Ninth Avenues. The historic district has some fine examples of nineteenth-century city dwellings, and small gardens and flowering trees abound. If you think the grounds of General Theological Seminary (440 West 21st Street) look familiar, that's because it is frequently functions as a set for the TV show Law & Order! Even seminaries have to make money, and thus G.T.S. (as it's known) demolished its former entrance on Ninth Avenue to make way for (what else?) luxury condominiums. At its Tenth Avenue entrance, G.T.S. created one of Manhattan's most charming niche hotels, the Desmond Tutu Center, named after the great South African archbishop. Speaking of hotels, Chelsea has no shortage of great places to stay and to eat. On Tenth Avenue you'll find the renowned tapas of Tia Pol and its offshoot El Quinto Pino just two blocks away. There's the upscale Cookshop nearby, and further south on Tenth Avenue you'll find the Iron Chef's Morimoto at the great Chelsea Market, also home to Buddakan on the Ninth Avenue side.

There are no events taking place on this date.

Info

311 W 34th Street
New York, NY 10001
(212) 564-4882
Website

Editorial Rating

Admission And Tickets

Varies by event.

This Week's Hours

Varies by event.

Nearby Subway

  • to 34th St/Penn Station -- 0.1

Upcoming Events

Lany

Lany

04/12/2024 08:00 PM
Fri, April 12
8:00PM
$
Varies by event.
Get Tickets

Lany

Lany

04/13/2024 08:00 PM
Sat, April 13
8:00PM
$
Varies by event.
Get Tickets

Madness

Madness

05/30/2024 08:00 PM
Thu, May 30
8:00PM
$
Varies by event.
Get Tickets

The Damned

The Damned

05/31/2024 08:00 PM
Fri, May 31
8:00PM
$
Varies by event.
Get Tickets

Antonis Remos

Antonis Remos

06/01/2024 08:30 PM
Sat, June 01
8:30PM
$
Varies by event.
Get Tickets
View All Upcoming Events

Other Venues Attractions

Irish Arts Center

Founded in 1972, Irish Arts Center is a New York-based arts and cultural center ... view

Madison Square Garden

New York's premier sports arena located atop Penn Station dates back to the late... view

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is the world's largest cultural compl... view

Yankee Stadium

The New Yankee Stadium located in the New York City borough of the Bronx is not ... view

 

Wild Project

The wild project is a new venue for theater, film, and visual art with an eco-co... view

Brooklyn Cyclones at MCU Park

In the summer of 2001, the Brooklyn Cyclones were born, bringing baseball back t... view

The Plaza at 101 Park Avenue

One of the live music venues for Grand Central Partnership's ten-week Celebrate ... view

Time Warner Center

Located at Columbus Circle in the heart of Manhattan, the Time Warner Center off... view