Audubon Theatre, 1915.

Built in 1912 by William Fox, the founder of the Fox Film Corporation, the Audubon was a film and vaudeville theatre with a second floor ballroom, and basement-level meeting rooms often used by political activists, trade unions, and religious groups. In 1950, Congregation Emes Wozedek purchased the building.

After Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964, he founded the Organization 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. Thereafter, the building fell into disrepair.

In 1992, the building was slated for demolition and redevelopment by Columbia University. Preservation groups resisted the development, eventually reaching a compromise: Columbia could build at the northern end of the block, but the building and facade closest to Broadway and 165th Street would be preserved.