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South of Union Square
Place
Hotel Empire
1889 Broadway

Posts & Stories(2)

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LGBT Sites
Story

This curated scavenger hunt celebrates Pride and tests your LGBT history knowledge. Where did civil rights activist and literary icon James Baldwin reside? At what community church did transgender activist Sylvia Rivera find community on the Far West Side (the congregation renamed the food pantry in her honor)? Know the answers? Take part in the hunt! To get credit for solving a clue, check in at the location (tap the lock button to the left; if you’re in the right place, it will turn green). Each location you check in to is worth a single point. For clues that start with a camera emoji (📸), tap the image to re-create the historical photo for an additional point. After you’ve lined up your re-creation, please remember to tap the “submit to hunt” button.
Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire
Post

Brooklyn-born Aaron Copland (1900-1990), known as the “Dean of American Music,” was one of the most influential and popular figures of 20th-century classical music. He grew up in an apartment at 628 Washington Avenue (demolished) in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn and heard his first symphony at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) when he was 16. In between extensive travels abroad, Copland lived in a number of Manhattan apartments, including his first at 135 West 74th Street from 1924 to 1926. His most significant city residence was a modest tenth-floor studio – furnished with a piano – at the Hotel Empire from 1936 to 1947. He also rented and worked in a nearby loft at 113 West 63rd Street (demolished for Lincoln Center). During this incredibly prolific period, Copland completed a number of important works, some of which are among the cornerstones of 20th-century American music. A selection of compositions completed while in residence at the Hotel Empire include Billy the Kid (1938), Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), Lincoln Portrait (1942), Rodeo (1942), Appalachian Spring (1944), and Symphony No. 3 (1944-46). Copland was given New York Music Critics Circle Awards for the latter two works; Appalachian Spring, composed for choreographer Martha Graham’s ballet in 1944, also earned him a Pulitzer Prize in Music.

Photos(14)

Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire

The Hotel Empire and nearby wooden shacks, West 63rd Street, New York City, 1896.
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Hotel Empire

64th Street and Broadway. Hotel Empire.
R.K.O. Colonial Theater  image

R.K.O. Colonial Theater

RKO Colonial Theatre marquee, 1887 Broadway, advertising Pat O'Brien in 'China Clipper;' Claire Trevor in 'Star for a Night;' and a film of the Joe Louis-Al Ettore fight, 1937.
Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire

Ninth Avenue El, Manhattan, at 64th to 66th Streets, November 8, 1940.
Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire

West side of Broadway and W. 63rd Street, N.Y. New York Sports Clubs.
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Hotel Empire

Upper Broadway, New York City Primary subject: Hotel Empire
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Hotel Empire

Hotel Empire Lincoln Sq.
Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire

Hotel Empire Broadway at 63rd St., New York City "At the Gateway to Times Square"
Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire

Hotel Empire "At the Gateway to Times Square"
Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire

Hotel Empire Broadway at 63rd St., New York City
Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire

Hotel Empire Broadway at 63rd St., New York City "At the Gateway to Times Square"
Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire

Hotel Empire (Lincoln Square)
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Hotel Empire

Hotel Empire (Empire Square)
Hotel Empire image

Hotel Empire

Hotel Empire (Empire Square)
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