About:
CMT is owned by The Salvation Army and was built in 1929 to honor the 100th anniversary of its founder, William Booth. This state-of-the-art performance hall was designated a New York City landmark in 2017.
With a dozen subway lines and the PATH train all within a two-block walk, the 1,347-seat CMT is easily accessed from the Upper East and Upper West Sides, downtown, the outer boroughs and northern New Jersey.
The space is perfect for film shoots, concerts, corporate meetings, movie screenings, fundraisers, graduations and town hall meetings.
CMT’s technical staff members bring to every event a wealth of experience from their work in all facets of the media and entertainment industries. They have won Grammy Awards, worked on the Oscars, served on crews for top recording artists, like Sting and the Foo Fighters, toured with Broadway shows and staffed production crews at major TV studios. They know how to make your event an unforgettable experience and will handle the details and the pressure so that you can have peace of mind.
The CMT is also a favorite of many outside musicians, ensembles, speakers and performing arts groups. Varying styles of performers have graced the stage of the CMT including, orchestras, chamber ensembles, gospel choirs, ballet dancers, pop groups, award ceremonies, corporate conferences, seminars, town hall meetings and many others.
History:
Long before Manhattan began moving uptown, the theatre district made its home on 14thStreet, where performance halls provided magnificent shows, just as they do today in Times Square.
This Fourteenth Street site was first occupied by The Salvation Army in 1895, which the Memorial Hall and administrative building of eight floors was erected in memory of Catherine Booth, wife of General William Booth, and mother of The Salvation Army. That building represented at the time the peak of the Army’s property holdings.
The hall was flanked on the west side by a brown-stone mansion which once housed the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and afterwards became the town residence of the Roosevelt family.
This property was later acquired by the Salvation Army and used as the New York Training College. It was burned to the ground in 1925, and the site remained empty till the present building scheme was approved.
The conception of the present building grew but slowly, commencing with the intention of modernizing the old Memorial hall and adding an executive building. Backed by the Citizens’ Advisory Board, this scheme grew into the more ambitious plan of replacing the old hall with modern auditoriums.
Today the Centennial Memorial Temple stands a stout art deco auditorium with a seating capacity of 1,350. The hall is used constantly by The Salvation Army for its own events on a national and international basis. Throughout the world of The Salvation Army, the “CMT” is the largest and one of the most recognizable halls in its heritage.
