NEW YORK THEATER DISTRICT             

It was the move of the Metropolitan Opera House to Broadway at 40th Street in 1883 that first drew lavish theaters and restaurants to this area.  In the 1920's, movie palaces added the glamour of neon to Broadway, the signs getting bigger and brighter until the street became known as the  "Great White Way".

After World War II, the pull of the movies waned and glitter was replaced by grime.  Now a redevelopment program has brought the public and the bright lights back.

Pockets of calm also exist away from the bustle.  Explore the Public Library or relax in Bryant Park.  For the best of both worlds, though, visit Rockefeller Center.

STREET BY STREET:  TIMES SQUARE
Named for the 25-storey New York Times Tower, which opened in 1906.  Times Square has been at the heart of the city's theater district since 1899, when Oscar Hammerstein built the Victoria and Republic theaters.

Since the 1920's, the glowing neon of theater billboards has combined with the Times' illuminated newswire and other advertising to create a spectacular lightshow.

After a period of decline starting in the 1930's, which saw sex shows taking over many of the grand theatres, rejuvenation of the district began in the 1990's.  Old-style Broadway glamour again rubs shoulders with modern entertainment in this enticing part of the city.

E WALK
This vast entertainment and detail complex is home to a state-of-the-art multiplex cinema, restaurants, a hotel, the BB King Blues Club, and the high-tech Broadway City Arcade.

NEW VICTORY THEATER
Renovated in 1995, this classic Broadway theater reopened as a dedicated young people's performance space.

MTV STUDIOS
Crowds gather outside at 3pm Monday through Friday to watch interviews being filmed in the second-floor studios.  Roving cameras often seek reactions on the street.

SARDI'S
In Times Square since 1921, Sardi's walls are lined with caricatures of Broadway stars of yesterday and today.

TIMES SQUARE
Every New Years Eve at midnight, the famed silver ball drops from the top of One Times Square.  There are great views from the front of this New York landmark.

PARAMOUNT HOTEL
This hotel, designed by Philippe Starck, is the hip haunt of the theatre crowd, in the Whiskey Bar for a late-night drink.

ELECTRONIC TICKER TAPE
The figures on the Morgan Stanley LED tickertape are 10 feet  (3 m)  high.  It is only one of the eye-catching lighting displays that illuminate Times Square day and night.  City ordinances require office buildings to carry neon advertising.

DUFFY SQUARE
A statue of actor, composer, and writer George M Cohan, responsible for many of Broadway's hits, stands proud in this small square.

Duffy Square is named for World War I hero,  "Fighting"  Father Duffy, immortalized in a statue.  It is also home to the TKTS booth, where cut-price tickets are sold daily.

LYCEUM THEATER
The oldest Broadway theatre, the Lyceum has a beautifully ornate, Baroque facade.

BELASCO THEATER
Built in 1907 by producer David Belasco, it was the most technically advanced theater of its time.  Original Tiffany glass and Everett Shinn murals decorate the interior.  It is rumored that Belasco's ghost still treads the boards some nights.

ROCKEFELLER CENTER
When the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted to declare Rockefeller Center a landmark in 1985, they rightly called it  "the heart of New York....a great unifying presence in the chaotic core of midtown Manhattan".

It is the largest privately owned complex of its kind and the inspiration for many cities to emulate its perfect urban mix.  The Art Deco design was by a team of top architects headed by Raymond Hood.  Works by 30 artists can be found in foyers, on facades, and in the gardens.

The site, once a botanic garden owned by Columbia University, was leased in 1928 by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., as an ideal central home for a new opera house.

When the 1929 Depression scuttled the plans, Rockefeller, stuck with a long-term lease, went ahead with his own development.

The 14 buildings that were erected between 1931 and 1940 provided jobs for 225,000 people during the worst of the Depression.  More development between 1957 and 1973 brought the Center to a total of 19 buildings in all.

In December 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened within the complex.  It hosts dazzling events;  the annual Christmas and Easter shows feature the famous Rockettes.  In 1999, a complete renovation of the Hall brought back the glitter and sparkle of the original interior.

DIAMOND ROW
Nearly every shop window on 47th Street glitters with gold and diamonds.  The buildings are filled with booths and workshops where jewelers vie for customers while, upstairs, millions of dollars change hands.

The diamond district was born in the 1930's, when the Jewish diamond cutters of Antwerp and Amsterdam fled to America to escape Naziam.

Hasidic Jews with black hats, beards and long earlocks are still an integral part of the scene.  Although mainly a wholesale district, individual customers are welcome.  Bring cash, compare prices, haggle, and stay away if you know nothing about the value of diamonds.

In the midst of all this, look for the sign saying  "Wise men fish here" - here is the Gotham Book Mart, a tiny, much-loved treasure house of literary gems.

LYCEUM THEATER, 149 W 45th Street.
The oldest New York theater still active is a Baroque-style bandbox as frilly as a wedding cake.  This 1903 triumph was the first theater by Herts and Tallant, later renowned for their extravagant style.

The Lyceum made history with a record rum of 1,600 performances of the comedy Born Yesterday.  It was the first theater to be designated a historic landmark but, though it is safe from change, it is often dark now that the Theater District has shifted westward.
Tel:  239 - 6200.

ALGONQUIN HOTEL, 59 W 44th Street.
The exterior is a bit fussy - iron bay windows in vertical rows, red brick, too much detail - but it is the ambiance, not the 1902 architecture, that makes the Algonquin special.

In the 1920's, the Rose Room was home to America's best-known luncheon club, the Round Table, with literary lights such as Alexander Woollcott, Franklin P. Adams, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Harold Ross.

All were associated with the New Yorker  (Ross was the founding editor), whose 25 West 43rd Street headquarters had a back door opening into the hotel.

A recent renovation has preserved the old-fashioned, civilized feel of the Rose Room, as well as the cozy, paneled lobby where publishing types and theater-goers still like to gather for drinks, settling into comfortable armchairs and ringing a small brass bell to summon the waters.
Tel:   840 - 6800.

NEW YORK YACHT CLUB, 37 W 44th Street.
A whimsical 1899 creation, this private club has the carved sterns of 16th-century Dutch galleons in the three bay windows.

The prows of the ships are borne up by sculpted dolphins and waves spilling over the windowsills and splashing down to the pavement.  (The building, just over 100 years old, has been spruced up for its next century).

This is the birthplace of the America's Cup yacht race, which was based in the US from 1857 to 1983.  That was the year the much coveted prize was taken from the table where it has stood for more than a century, when the Australia II sailed a historic victory.
Closed:  to the public  (access to members only).

BRYANT PARK
In 1853, with the New York Public Library site still occupied by Croton Reservoir, Bryant Park  (then Reservoir Park)  housed a dazzling Crystal Palace, built for the World's Fair of that year.

In the 1960's the park was a hangout for drug dealers and other undesirables.  In 1989 the city closed and renovated it, reclaiming it for workers and visitors to relax in.

In spring and fall, world-famous fashion shows take place here;  in the summer, there are free classic movie screening.  Over seven million books lie in storage stacks beneath the park.

BRYANT PARK HOTEL
The American Radiator building  (now the Bryant Park Hotel)  was the first major New York work by Raymond Hood and John Howells, who went on to design the Daily News Building, the McGraw-Hill building, and Rockefeller Center.

The 1924 structure is reminiscent of one of Hood's best-known Gothic buildings, Chicago's Tribune Tower.  Here, the design is sleeker, giving the building the illusion of being taller than its actual 23 stories.

The black brick facade is set off by gold terra-cotta trim, evoking images of flaming coals;  a comparison that would have suited its original owners well, since they made heating equipment. 

The building is now a luxury hotel right in the heart of Midtown, across the street form the New York Public Library, Bryant Park and Fifth Avenue.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.
In 1897 the coveted job of designing New York's main public library was awarded to architects Carrere & Hastings.

The library's first director envisaged a light, quiet airy place for study, where millions of books could be stored and yet be available to readers as promptly as possible.  In the hands of Carrere & Hastings, his vision came true, in what is considered the epitome of New York's Beaux Arts period.

Built on the site of the former Croton Reservoir, it opened in 1911 to immediate acclaim, despite having cost the city $9 million.

The vast, paneled Main Reading Room stretches two full blocks and is suffused with daylight from the two interior courtyards.  Below it are 88 miles  (140 km)  of shelves, holding over seven million volumes.  A staff of over 100 and a computerized dumb-waiter can supply any book within 10 minutes.

The Periodicals Room holds 10,000 current periodicals from 128 countries.  On its walls are murals by Richard Haas, honoring New York's great publishing houses.

The collections of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox.  Its collections today range from Thomas Jefferson's handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence to T.S Eliot's typed copy of  "The Waste Land".  More than 1,000 queries are answered daily, using the vast database of the CATNYP computer catalog.

This library is the hub of a network of 82 branches, with nearly seven million users.  Some branches are very well known, such as the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at the Lincoln Center and the Schomburg Center in Harlem.
Open:  Monday - Saturday;  hours vary.
Closed:  public holidays.
Tel:  869 - 8089.

INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY, 1133 Avenue of the Americas.
This Museum was founded by Cornell Capa in 1974 to conserve the work of such photo-journalists as his brother Robert, who was killed on assignment in 1954.

The ICP's collection of 12,500 original prints contains work by many top photographers, including Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Special exhibitions are organized from the contents of the archive, as well as from outside sources.  There are also films, lectures, and classes.
Open:  10am - 5pm Tuesday - Thursday, 10am - 8pm Friday, 10am - 6pm Saturday and Sunday.
Tel:  860 - 1777.

TIMES SQUARE, Times Square Visitors Center, 1560 Broadway.
The 1990's saw a huge transformation in Times Square, reversing a decline that began during the Depression - the square is now a safe and vibrant place for theater-goers and tourists, where Broadway traditions comfortably coexist with modern innovations.

Although the New York Times has moved on from its original headquarters at the south end of the square, the silver ball still drops at midnight on New Years Eve, as it has since the building opened with fanfare and fireworks in 1906.

Exciting new buildings, such as the Bertlesmann building and the fashionably minimalist Conde Nast offices, sit comfortably alongside the classic Broadway theaters.

Broadway's fortunes have also revived.  Many theaters, such as the New Victory and the New Amsterdam, have been reclaimed and renovated.  They are again housing new productions, and theater-goers throng the area's bars and restaurants each evening.

The newest landmark is the 57-storey skyscraper designed by Miami architects Arquitectonica, that tops the E-Walk entertainment and retail compiles at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue.

Other new attractions include an outpost of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum at 42nd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenue, and Lazer Park, a huge lazer tag arena, at 46th Street and Broadway.

NEW AMSTERDAM THEATER, 214 W 42nd Street.
This was the most opulent theater in the United States when it opened in 1903, and the first to have an Art Nouveau interior. 

It was owned for a time by Florenz Ziegfild, who produced his famous Follies revue here between 1914 and 1918 - with Broadway's first $5 ticket price.  He remodelled the roof garden into another theater, the Aerial Gardens.

This is one of the fine early theaters on 42nd Street that fell on hard times.  With the rehabilitation of Times Square its fortunes rose again, and it is once more in Show Business.
Tel:  282 - 2907.

GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE BUILDING 330 W 42nd Street.
This 1931 design by Raymond Hood was the only New York building selected for the influential International Style survey of 1932.

Its unusual design gives it a stepped profile seen from east and west, but a slab effect viewed from north to south  The exterior's horizontal bands of blue-green terra-cotta have earned it the nickname  "jolly green giant".

Step inside to see the classic Art Deco lobby of opaque glass and stainless steel.  One block west is Theater Row, a pleasant group of Off-Broadway theaters and cafes.
Open:  office hours.

PARAMOUNT BUILDING. 1501 Broadway.
The fabulous ground-floor movie theater where bobby-soxers stood in line in the 1940's to hear Frank Sinatra perform is gone, but there's still a theatrical feel to the massive building designed by Rapp & Rapp in 1927.

On each side are symmetrical setbacks, 14 in all, rising like building blocks to an Art Deco crown - a tower, clock and globe.  In the heyday of the  "Great White Way", the tower was lit, with an observation deck at the top.

SHUBERT ALLEY, Between W 44th and W 45th Street.
The Playhouses on the streets west of Broadway are rich in theater lore - an in notable architecture.  Two classic theaters built in 1913 are the Booth  (22 West 45th Street), named after actor Edwin Booth, and the Shubert  (221 West 44th Street), after theater baron Sam S. Shubert.  They form the west wall of Shubert Alley, where aspiring actors lined up, hoping for a casting in a Shubert play.

A Chorus Line ran at the Shubert until 1990, for a record 6,137 performances;  Katharine Hepburn starred earlier in The Philadelphia Story.

Across from the 44th Street end of the alley is the St. James, where Rodgers and Hammerstein made their debut with Oklahoma in 1941, followed by The King and I.  Nearby is Sardi's, the restaurant where actors waited for opening night reviews. 

Irving Berlin staged The Music Box Revue opposite the other end of the alley in 1921.  His Music Box Theater has since housed many famous shows.

MONY TOWER, 1740 Broadway.
Built in 1950, the head office of the Mutual of New York insurance company  (now MONY Financial Services)  has a weather vane that tells you everything except the wind direction.

The mast turns green for fair, orange for cloudy, flashing orange for rain and white for snow.  Lights moving up the mast mean warmer weather;  lights going down mean get out your overcoat. 

CITY CENTER OF MUSIC AND DANCE, 131 W 55th Street.
This highly ornate Moorish structure with its dome of Spanish tiles was designed in 1924 as a Masonic Shriners' Temple.  It was saved from the developers by Mayor La Guardia, becoming home to the New York City Opera and Ballet in 1943.

When the troupes moved to Lincoln Center, City Center lived on as a major venue for dance.  Renovation work has preserved the delightful excesses of the architecture.
Tel"  581 - 1212.

CARNEGIE HALL, 154 W 57th Street.
Financed by millionaire philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, New York's first great concert hall opened in 1891 in what was then a suburb of the city.  The terra-cotta and brick Italian Renaissance - style building is said to have among the best acoustics in the world.

On  opening night, when Tchaikovsky was a guest conductor, all of New York's finest families attended;  many waited an hour before they could alight from their horse-drawn carriages.

For many years Carnegie Hall was home to the New York Philharmonic;  under such conductors as Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski, Bruno Walter and Leonard Bernstein.  Playing Carnegie Hall quickly became an international symbol of success for both classical and popular musicians.

A campaign led by violinist Isaac Stern in the late 1950's saved the building from redevelopment as offices, and in 1964 the hall was made a national landmark.

Interior renovation in 1986 brought the bronze balconies and the ornamental plaster back to their original splendor.  The corridors are lined with memorabilia of artists who have performed here.

In 1991, a museum opened adjacent to the first-tier level, telling the story of the illustrious first 100 years of  "The House that Music Built".

today, top orchestras and performers from around the world still fill Carnegie Hall with their wonderful music.  Tours of the hall are also available to visitors.
Open:  11am - 4:30pm daily and after concerts.
Closed:  Wednesday.
Tel:  903 - 9765.

RUSSIAN TEA, 150 W 57th Street.
This restaurant is a New York classic, and its location next to Carnegie Hall couldn't be better.  After many delays, the restaurant reopened in 1999.

The interiors display the owner's vision of St. Petersburg on the Hudson, complete with bears, gilded trees with glass eggs, lavishly decorated private rooms, an aquarium, and modernized Russian food.
Tel:  974 - 2111.

ALWYN COURT APARTMENTS, 180 W 58th Street.
You can't miss it - not with the fanciful crowns, dragons and other French Renaissance-style terra-cotta carvings covering the exterior of this 1909 Harde and Short apartment building.

The ground floor has been altered and lost its cornice in the process, but the rest of the building is intact, an intricate stone tapestry, and one of a kind in the city.

The facade follows the style of Francois I, whose reign saw the building of some of the finest Loire Valley chateaux, and whose symbol, a crowned salamander, can be seen above the entrance to the building at 58th Street.

Residents and their guests are fortunate to be able to enjoy the visual delights of the interior courtyard, which features a dazzling display of the illusionistic skills of artist Richard Haas, in which plain walls are transformed into  "carved"  stonework.
Closed:  to the public.

INTREPID SEA-AIR-SPACE MUSEUM, W 46th Street.
On the Intrepid, a World War II US aircraft carrier, the exhibits range from fighter planes from the 1940's to the A-12, fastest spy plane in the world.  The Growler, a guided-missile submarine, and the destroyer Edson are also open.

Pioneers Hall traces the development of flying and the workings of today's super-carriers;  Technologies Hall looks at ocean exploration and the rockets of the future.  Mission Control offers live coverage of NASA shuttle missions via satellite.
Open:  April - September:  10am - 5pm daily;  10am - 6pm Saturday - Sunday; 
October - March 10am - 4pm Wednesday - Sunday.
Tel:  245 - 0072.