The Planning And Construction Of American Theatres (1896) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HAMMERSTEIN'S OLYMPIA. In the short space of ten months, beginning with February 1895, the large and magnificent amusement palace situated at Forty-fourth street and Broadway, New York, was opened to the public on November 25th. The building has a frontage of 203 feet on Broadway, I 56 feet on Forty-fifth Street, and a little less on Forty-fourth Street. The greatest height of the building is 96 feet at the centre of the Broadway side. The architecture follows the lines of the French Renaissance period. " Olympia" comprises three spacious auditoriums, as shown by the plans, under one roof, known as Olympia Music Hall, Olympia Concert Hall, and Olympia Theatre, where three distinct entertainments are given nightly, one admission-fee admitting to all. In addition to the above auditoriums there will be a roof- garden with complete stage appointments and a level floor- space almost equal to the surface dimensions of the entire building and capable of seating several thousand persons. Below the street-level there are cafe-s, billiard-rooms, bowling-alleys, and Turkish baths. The edifice is fire-proof and strictly complies with the laws of the Building and Fire Departments. No wood or inflammable material has been used in the structural portion, excepting in some parts over concreted floors. It is provided with ample means of escape in case of fire or panic, and has numerous exits on every floor front and back of the curtain-line. Automatic sprinklers are distributed over all the auditoriums, stages, fly-galleries, and dressing-rooms, and at any point the building can be deluged should the temperature reach an abnormal degree. The building is heated and ventilated by the rotary-faaprocess, which forces hot and cold air through ducts, and permits an even temperatu...