Built in 1885 by chocolate magnate William L Wallace, the Music Hall was designed by distinguished architects Theodore De Lemos and August Cordes who also built New York City’s Grand Central Palace and the Macy’s building at Herald Square. It was opened during Tarrytown’s “Millionaire’s Colony” era when prominent families like the Rockefellers, Goulds, and Vanderbilts resided in the town and gathered at the Music Hall for its lavish balls, flower shows and concerts. The first event at the Music Hall was a new Gilbert & Sullivan opera called The Mikado on December 12, 1885.
Today, the Music Hall is one of the busiest theaters in the country, offering the best in music, theater, dance, film, comedy, family programming and arts education. With a 9 person full-time staff, 40 freelancers, and 200 volunteers, it is a cultural destination, attracting over 100,000 people on an annual basis from all over the tristate area, and an economic engine, generating over $6.8 million to the local economy through visitor-related spending according to the Arts & Economic Prosperity Calculator.
Listed on the National Register for Historic Places, the Music Hall is the oldest theater in Westchester and one of the finest examples of Queen Anne decorative brickwork in the county. Only 6% of existing American theaters were built before 1900 and the Music Hall is one of them. As the first theater in Westchester to operate its shows by solar power, the goal is for The Music Hall to be a showcase for green energy in a 19th-century building.