40°50′21″N73°56′26″W / 40.83917°N 73.94056°W /40.83917; -73.94056
TheAudubon Theatre and Ballroom (generally referred to as theAudubon Ballroom) was a theatre and ballroom located at 3940Broadway, at the intersection withWest 165th Street, in theWashington Heights neighborhood ofManhattan, New York City. It was built in 1912 and was designed byThomas W. Lamb. The theatre was known at various times as theWilliam Fox Audubon Theatre, theBeverly Hills Theater, and theSan Juan Theater. The ballroom is noted for being the site of theassassination ofMalcolm X on February 21, 1965. Most of the building was demolished starting in 1992, with two-thirds of the facade preserved. Since 2005, it has been theAudubon Business and Technology Center, which is part ofColumbia University's Audubon Research Park.[1]
The Audubon Ballroom was built in 1912 by film producerWilliam Fox, who later founded theFox Film Corporation. Fox hiredThomas W. Lamb, one of the foremost American theater architects, to design the building. The building contained a theatre with 2500 seats, and a second-floor ballroom that could accommodate 200 seated guests.[2] During its history, the Audubon Ballroom was used as avaudeville house, a movie theater,[3] and a meeting hall where political activists often met.[2][4]
In the 1930s, Congregation Emes Wozedek, a synagogue whose members were predominantly immigrants fromGermany, began to use basement rooms of the Audubon Ballroom to conduct itsreligious services.[5] At around the same time, several trade unions, including the Municipal Transit Workers, the IRT Brotherhood Union, and theTransport Workers' Union, utilized the meeting rooms.[2] In 1950, the congregants purchased the building,[4] and they continued to hold services there until 1983.[6]
Among the many events held at the Ballroom was the annual New York Mardi Gras Festival.[2]
AfterMalcolm X left theNation of Islam in 1964, he founded theOrganization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), whose weekly meetings were held at the Audubon Ballroom. It was at one of those meetings, on February 21, 1965, that Malcolm X was assassinated as he was giving a speech.[2]
Because ofnon-payment of property taxes, New York City took possession of the theatre in 1967. Nevertheless, in the 1960s and 1970s, the Ballroom operated as theSan Juan Theater, showing films which catered to the increasingly Hispanic neighborhood. It closed in 1980, and the building remained vacant and the exterior deteriorated.[2]
In 1989,Columbia University, with thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey as a partner,[2] reached an agreement with the city,[2] and in 1992 it began the process ofdemolishing the Audubon Ballroom to replace it with a medical research facility.[2] Although many city officials, including MayorDavid Dinkins, were strongly in favor of the project because of the jobs and economic impetus it would bring to the area, which had suffered greatly in the economic downturn of the 1970s,[2] community activists and Columbia University students – whooccupiedHamilton Hall on campus – protested the planned demolition, andhistoric preservation groups unsuccessfully sued to prevent it.[7] They were also unable to persuade theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to hold a hearing on giving the building landmark status.[2]
Eventually a compromise was reached, at least in part due to pressure brought byManhattan Borough PresidentRuth Messinger and Malcolm X's widow,Betty Shabazz, who both favoredadaptive reuse of the building. They were supported by a report on its structural integrity produced by apro bono team of architects assembled by theNew York Landmarks Conservancy and theMunicipal Art Society.[2] The compromise allowed Columbia to build on the northern part of the building their research facility – now theAudubon Business and Technology Center in the Mary Woodard Lasker Biomedical Research Building, part of the Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park[8] apublic-private partnership betweenColumbia University Medical Center and the New Yorkstate andcity governments. In return, two-thirds of the Audubon Ballroom's original facade – the part along Broadway and West 165th Street – would be preserved and restored. In addition, a portion of the interior ballroom where Malcolm X was killed was restored and protected,[2][9] to be made into a museum honoring him.
In 2005, theMalcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center opened in the lobby to commemorate the contributions Malcolm X made to the civil rights movement.[10]
Architect Thomas Lamb, who later would design the nearby eclecticUnited Palace, was an advocate of the use of ornamentation and color on his building's exteriors. He would write: "Exotic ornaments, colors and scenes are particularly effective in creating an atmosphere in which the mind is free to frolic and becomes receptive to entertainment."[11] In line with this philosophy, the facade of the Audubon Ballroom presentsterra-cotta glazedpolychromy, encrustations andcornices.[12] Its ornamentations include brown foxes between the windows on the second floor, intended to flatter Fox,[4] and, most prominently, a colorful protruding three-dimensional statue ofNeptune on a ship.[2]
Alterations to the building in 1996 were made by the architecture firm of Davis Brody Bond, who also designed Columbia University's new building, while the restoration of the facade was handled by preservation specialist Jan Hird Pokorny.[12]
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