Landmarks Preservation Commission November 17, 1987; Designation List 196 LP-1328 CORT THEATER, 138-146 West 48th Street, Manhattan. Built 1912-13; architect, Thomas Lamb. Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 1000, Lot 49. On June 14 and 15, 1982, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the Cort Theater and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 24). The hearing was continued to October 19, 1982. Both hearings had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. Eighty witnesses spoke or had statements read into the record in favor of designation. One witness spoke in opposition to designation. The owner, with his representatives, appeared at the hearing, and indicated that he had not formulated an opinion regarding designation. The Commission has received many letters and other expressions of support in favor of this designation. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS The Cort Theater survives today as one of the historic theaters that symbolize American theater for both New York and the nation. Built in 1912- 13, the Cort is among the oldest surviving theaters in New York. It was designed by arc hi teet Thomas Lamb to house the productions of John Cort, one of the country's major producers and theater owners. The Cort Theater represents a special aspect of the nation's theatrical history. Beyond its historical importance, it is an exceptionally handsome theater, with a facade model ed on the Petit Trianon in Versailles. Its triple-story, marble-faced Corinthian colonnade is very unusual among the Broadway theater s. Thomas Lamb was New York's most prolific theater architect, but the Cort is one of only two legitimate stage theaters of his design surviving in the Broadway area. For three-quarters of a century the Cort Theater has served as home to countless numbers of the plays through which the Broadway theater has come to personify American theater. As such, it continues to help define the Broadway theater district, the largest and most famous concentration of legitimate stage theaters in the world. The development of the Broadway Theater District The area of midtown Manhattan known today as the Broadway theater district encompasses the largest concentration of legitimate playhouses in 1

the world. The theaters located there, some dating from the turn of the century, are significant for their contributions to the history of the New York stage, for their influence upon American theater as a whole, and in many cases for their architectural design. The development of the area around Times Square as New York's theater district at the end of the 19th century occurred as a result of two related factors: the northward movement of the population of Manhattan Island (abetted by the growth of several forms of mass transportation), and the expansion of New York's role in American theater. The northward movement of Manhattan's res identia 1, commercia 1, and entertainment districts had been occurring at a steady rate throughout the 19th century. In the early 1800s, businesses, stores, hotels, and places of amusement had clustered together in the vicinity of lower Broadway. As New York's various businesses moved north, they began to isolate themselves in more or less separate areas: the financial institutions remained downtown; the major retail stores situated themselves on Broadway between 14th and 23rd Streets, eventually moving to Herald Square and Fifth Avenue at the turn of the century; the hotels, originally located near the stores and theaters, began to congregate around major transportation centers such as Grand Central Terminal or on the newly fashionable Fifth Avenue; while the mansions of the wealthy spread farther north on Fifth Avenue, as did such objects of their beneficence as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1 The theater district, which had existed in the midst of stores, hotels, and other businesses along lower Broadw

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