Design
The 'Old Met' In Its Final Days
A look back at one of the first failed preservation efforts in newly preservation-minded 1960s New York.
Shortly after New York City's old Metropolitan Opera House opened on Broadway between 39th and 40th, the Real Estate Record and Guide called it "a good design robbed of its rightful effect through imperfect execution." Eighty-three years later, conductor Leopold Stokowski pleaded with his audience to "help save this magnificent house."
The 'Old Met' hosted its first performance on October 22, 1883, and after a emotional goodbye gala and testy preservation battle, was demolished in January 1967.