The Manhattan Opera House was built in 1906 by Oscar Hammerstein. Hammerstein boldly sought to compete with the established Metropolitan Opera by offering grand opera to the New York public at lower ticket prices and with a superior orchestra and stage productions. Rapidly, it received critical acclaim and became a popular alternative to the Met, and many great operas and celebrated singers debuted at the new theater.

In 1910, after the Metropolitan Opera felt it could no longer tolerate the competition, it offered Hammerstein $1.2 million to cease producing opera for a period of 10 years. He accepted the offer and experimented with various other types of entertainment before ultimately selling the building. In March 1911, it was opened as a “combination” house by the Shubert brothers featuring vaudeville shows during the week and concerts on Sunday nights at affordable prices.

In 1922, the Manhattan Opera House was purchased by the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, who built a new building façade and added the Grand Ballroom on the seventh floor. In 1926, Warner Brothers rented the Ballroom to set up a studio for the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system to record the New York Philharmonic orchestra for the film Don Juan. That film marked the release of the inaugural commercial film featuring a recorded musical soundtrack.

By 1939, the name of the building had been changed to the Manhattan Center, now a multi-purpose venue featuring a variety of different types of events. In 1986, the Manhattan Center was formed to develop the center into a venue with the capability of holding multimedia festivities.

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