Standing tall at the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue and West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, Carnegie Hall is the legendary NYC music mecca built by Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-born industrialist who became one of America’s wealthiest steel magnates.
After amassing his fortune early, Carnegie devoted much of his energies later in his life to libraries, universities, cultural institutions and other public causes. Carnegie’s vision of a grand music hall was that it would become a permanent home for serious music in New York and a place where public figures could be seen and heard.
It was Carnegie’s friendship with conductor Walter Damrosch, the director of the Symphony Society of New York, that got the ball rolling. Carnegie and his wife, Louise, ran into Damrosch during their 1887 honeymoon sea voyage to Scotland, and the gentlemen discussed New York’s need for a first-rate concert hall.
When he got back stateside, Carnegie got to work by creating the Music Hall Company of New York, purchasing the land in the relatively quiet neighborhood on Seventh Avenue and bankrolling much of the project.
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