The Brooklyn Academy of Music, in its original location on Montague Street, circa 1895.

Performances began in this building in 1861. On the morning of November 30, 1903, as stagehands were preparing for an event, a small gas explosion ignited the stage and scenery. The wooden interior was engulfed by flames quickly and by the time the fire was extinguished, the only thing standing was the brick exterior walls, and a number of adjacent buildings were heavily damaged. BAM would reopen five years later in 1908 in a new group of buildings in nearby Fort Greene.