Brooklyn Academy of Music Revenue and Competitors

Dating from its first performance in 1861, BAM has grown into a thriving urban arts center that brings international performing arts and film to Brooklyn. The first BAM facility at 176-194 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights was originally conceived by the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn as a home for its concerts. It housed a large theater seating 2,200, a smaller concert hall, dressing and chorus rooms, and a vast "baronial" kitchen. BAM presented both amateur and professional music and theater productions. Performers included Ellen Terry, Edwin Booth, Tomas Salvini, and Fritz Kreisler. After the building burned to the ground on the morning of November 30, 1903, The New York Times eulogized its achievements: "In short, there has hardly been a great public movement of national import but the old Academy has been at one time or another its principal focus." Ironically, the value of the Montague Street site was such that BAM's stock price actually went up on the day of the fire. Plans were quickly made to rebuild at the edge of Brooklyn's business district in the fashionable neighborhood of Fort Greene