Metropolitan Opera House Brick

This magnificent theater which first hosted the Metropolitan Opera was a product of Gilded Age clashes between old and new-money New Yorkers. In 1883, after the Academy of Music denied any attempts by industrialists to join their ranks, the excluded families decided to fund their own rival company. This specimen is a piece of brick material from the original Metropolitan Opera House. It was retrieved during the house's demolition in 1967, making way for the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center.