 |
| photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com |
In 1889 the area known as Harlem north of the city had
transformed from farms and estates to a growing suburb of New York City. Wealthy merchants relocated here, like
Thomas Henry Newman and his wife, Alice.
The Newmans moved into a fine home at 7 East 124th
Street in 1879. Alice came from a
well-respected family and The New York Times would late mention, “her father
[was] Dr. George Swinburne and her mother a member of the old Draper family of
this city.” She took a special interest
in charitable causes in the rapidly-developing Harlem neighborhood, including
the Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital at 127th Street and Lexington
Avenue; the Harlem Young Women’s Christian Association; and the Woman’s
Exchange. In addition she organized the
Harlem Relief Society.
Harlem had money. But
to rival society downtown it needed culture.
In 1889 Alice Newman organized the Harlem Philharmonic Society which
gave its first concert on December 19.
Without a concert or music call, the orchestra borrowed the auditorium
of the Young Men’s Christian Association on West 125th Street. That alone was a problem.
The New York Times reported “The orchestra is a small one,
as the hall will not accommodate a large body of players, and the works chosen
for performance must necessarily be such as can be treated by a small band.”
The problem would be solved within two years when the parcel of property wrapping around the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 125th Street became available. The New York Times later recalled on September 3, 1911, "Twenty-one years ago William Martin, a well-known citizen of Harlem, leased the property...He improved it by the erection of Madison Hall, which he expected would be a valuable venture." On November 29, 1891 the newspaper announced “the
Harlem Philharmonic Society will give its first concert at Madison Hall,
Madison Avenue and 125th Street on Thursday evening.”
The L-shaped Madison Hall wrapped around the existing corner building. The new mixed-use structure encompassed an auditorium for
concerts and lectures, and meeting rooms.
Three stories tall, it replaced two Italianate rowhouses of a generation
earlier on the narrower, Madison Avenue side. A “happy mixture of styles,” the
yellow brick façade was trimmed in carved stone. Thin, two-story brick pilasters with stylized
Corinthian capitals fit snugly between paired openings at the second and third
floors. Above it all, on both elevations, were overblown
pressed metal cornices capped with round-arched pediments.
 |
| Romanesque details peacefully coexist with Eastlake elements -- photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com |
One of the upper floors was used by the Masonic Bunting
Lodge, No. 655. Here, on February 8, 1892, the members celebrated the lodge’s 25th anniversary. In the meantime, the auditorium was a popular
setting for lectures. That year in
November and December alone there were nine with far-ranging subjects like “Dust
and Diseases,” “Empire of the Czar,” “Life Bright and Dark Sides of Hospital
Life“ and “Some Curiosities of Music.”
Harlemites may have been disappointed to read in The New
York Times on February 19, 1893 that “Mrs. Annie Besant’s lecture in Madison
Hall, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street and Madison Avenue, to-night will be
a farewell one.” Mrs. Besant was headed
to London. Her final New York lecture
would be “Modern Progress and Theosophy” and The New York Times promised “some interesting
events in modern history will be touched upon, with significant Theosophical
explanations.”
Madison Hall enwrapped the corner building. from the collection of the New York Public Library
Madison Hall was used for political and community meetings, as well. On May 31, 1893, The New York Times
reported that residents intended to protest the decision not to extend an
elevated railroad to the area. “The
citizens of Harlem and the annexed district are in a state of indignation over
the action of the Rapid-Transit Commissioners in refusing the offer of the
Manhattan Elevated Road to extend its roads, and they will hold a mass meeting
on Friday at 8 o’clock P. M. in Madison Hall…and enter a vigorous protest
against what they consider to be arbitrary action.”
The following year, on October 27, 1894, the auditorium was the scene of an enthusiastic Anti-Tammany meeting.
The next day The Sun reported that the mass meeting was attended by “the
anti-Tammanyites of the Twenty-sixth Assembly district, the German-American
Union of the Twenty-fifth district, and the Italian-American Reform Club.”
A month later, Professor E. Stone Wiggins plastered
posters throughout the neighborhood announcing his upcoming appearances at
Madison Hall. He promoted himself as “the
Canadian astronomer and weather prophet, who has gained great renown by his
weather prophecies.” He booked Madison
Hall to “discourse to the Harlemites on ‘The Cause of the Deluge’ and ‘Mars,
Where Man Came From,’” as reported in The New York Times on November 14.
But the second night of his appearance came and went without
an appearance by Professor Wiggins. Insulted by the community’s tepid response, he had left town. “He sent a little note to
Proprietor Martin of Madison Hall saying that from the slim attendance of the
night previous and the evident apathy shown by Harlemites to know whence they
came compelled him to give up his lectures.” The newspaper summed up its article saying “But the question
with the ushers and the ticket takers is not ‘where man came from,’ but ‘where
money is coming from.’”
Harlem’s prodigious growth, accompanied by the eventual
extension of the elevated trains, resulted in a lack of school buildings as the
turn of the century neared. In 1898 the
city rented “temporary school premises” for Public School 24 at No. 1941
Madison Avenue. The city paid an annual
rental of $4,500—about $125,000 today.
The school would remain in the building for at least two years
and it was here, according M. Jordan's letter to The New York Times decades
later, that the first school orchestra was formed. Interestingly enough, when the first school orchestra
concert was given here it was conducted by Dr. Henry T. Fleck. Fleck had been the conductor of the Harlem
Philharmonic Society when it gave its first concert in the building in 1891.
Now, the building's owner, the Star Realty Co., made significant changes. On August 13, 1904 the Real Estate Record & Guide noted, "Plans are nearing completion in the office of Ambrosius & Herzog...for improvements to the old Madison Hall...The building will be remodeled into a theatre, at a cost of $50,000." The alterations would cost the equivalent of $1.5 million today.
Trouble came to Madison Hall on December 15, 1907. Police did a Sunday sweep of music halls,
saloons and dance halls that day. The
New-York Tribune reported “Only four excise arrests were made in Harlem,
although many of the saloons were doing a big business…Theodore Tisch had a
dance in Madison Hall, at No. 1943 Madison avenue. The police found about twenty couples there,
and arrested Tisch.”
More shocking to New Yorkers than dancing on Sundays was the
Ferrer School of Socialism or “Modern School” that established itself in the
Madison Hall building in 1910. Founded
by Spanish anarchist Francesco Ferrer, who had been executed in Spain a year
earlier, it was highlighted in the Report
of the Joint Legislative Committee Investigating Seditious Activities filed
on April 24, 1920.
The report denounced the school, saying “Morality, such as
we understand it to be, has no place in their scheme of things...[G]reat stress
is laid upon the explanation of the sex functions in classrooms where these
boys and girls are herded together.”
Harry Kelly, of the school, described it differently. Saying that teaching at the Ferrer School
wasn’t called anarchism, he called it “liberalism.” Insisting flatly that the public school
system in America was “wrong,” he explained “Discipline never is allowed to
figure. Discipline might work some great
injury to the child’s mind. ‘Let ‘em be
natural’ is the slogan that again crops up.
The child must stray into school quite naturally and not urged by any
fear of being late.”
Flag-waving Americans were taken aghast when he said “if we
taught the children patriotism and that this country is better than any other
country we would be blanked hypocrites.
There are millions of people in other countries being taught just the
same thing.”
The school continued here, also offering free lectures and
discussions like “Debate on an Amnesty for Political Prisoners in America,”
until June 30, 1919. At that point,
according to the State report, “the activities of this Committee drove it out
of business.”
In the meantime alterations had again been made to Madison
Hall. The street level was converted to
retail space and in 1910 owner William A. Martin leased the store to Harriet
Cadugan, “for a number of years.”
In the building in 1911, along with the Ferrer School, was
the Consolidated Building Trades Employers’ Association of New York City had
its headquarters. In December 1915, the Knights of
Pythias signed a two-year lease for two floors in the building, and established its Unique Lodge No. 310 here. The lodge added PYTHIAN HALL in pressed metal
to the cornice.
 |
| photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com |
The Pythian and the Ferrer members must have made odd
bedfellows. On February 4, 1918, the Knights
celebrated their golden jubilee. The
New-York Tribune noted “during the exercises here, which will be addressed by
prominent men, a note of patriotism will be sounded in behalf of the 517
members of the fraternity who are in training camps or in France.”
The building, now known as Pythian Hall, continued to be
used by fraternal and labor organizations.
In the early 1920's it was home to the Middle Atlantic Circuit of the
Locomotive Engineers, as well as a lodge of the Odd Fellows.
By 1941 the retail store had been renovated as Matt’s Bar and
Restaurant. Upstairs a ballroom opened
in the latter half of the century. An
even more dramatic change would occur in 1992 when the Pilgrim Cathedral of
Harlem was established at street level.
When the religious group moved on to No. 15 West 126th Street
under Bishop Charles J. Reed, the former Madison Hall soon became home to the National Action
Network of Rev. Al Sharpton in 1996.
Sharpton renamed the second floor “ballroom” the House of Justice and
used it for press conferences and Saturday morning rallies.
It all nearly came to a fiery end on January 22, 2003. The New York Times reported “The Harlem
ballroom where the Rev. Al Sharpton has held court for six years, preaching
civil rights and excoriating politicians who raised his ire, was destroyed
yesterday morning by fire.” The electrical fire began on the second floor and before it
was extinguished nearly gutted the top two floors.
Today the ground floor is home to shops and restaurants while upstairs is the Israelite Church of God and Jesus Christ. According to William B. Helmreich in his The New York Nobody Knows, “A chart of
the twelve tribes of Israel identifies congregants with various current peoples,
including the Haitians, Negroes, West Indians, Mexicans, Seminole Indians,
Guatemalans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans.”
 |
| photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com |
The beleaguered building still retains much of its early 20th
century cast iron storefront. Above,
other than replacement windows and a good amount of rust and grime, little has
changed. It is a fascinating relic of
the developing days of Harlem when a wealthy woman felt the need for a symphony
orchestra.
LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog
No comments:
Post a Comment