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Webster Hall is a nightclub and concert venue located at 125 East 11th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues, near Astor Place, in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1886, its current incarnation was opened by the Ballinger Brothers in 1992. It serves as a nightclub, concert venue, corporate events center, and recording venue, and has a capacity of 2,500 people – including the club; 1,400 for the main stage. On March 18, 2008, after a landmarks proposal was submitted by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Webster Hall and its Annex a New York City landmark.〔("Webster Hall and Annex Designation Report" ), New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (March 18, 2008)〕 ==1886–1940== Webster Hall was built in 1886 by architect Charles Rentz in the Queen Anne style and topped with an elaborate mansard roof. Six years later in 1892, Rentz was hired to design an addition to the building, occupying the site of 125 East 11th Street and designed in the Renaissance Revival style using the same materials as the original building. Throughout the early twentieth century the building was plagued by fires, which occurred in 1902, 1911, 1930, 1938, and 1949. The original mansard roof was likely lost in one these fires. Webster Hall is one of New York City's most historically significant theater and event halls, having hosted social events of all types since the club's construction in 1886.〔 Originally commissioned by Charles Goldstein – who operated the hall and also lived in the Annex with his family until his death in 1898 – the building was a "hall for hire" from its inception. The first decade or so of Webster Hall's existence saw it host countless labor union rallies, weddings, meetings, lectures, dances, military functions, concerts, fundraisers and other events, particularly focused on the working-class and immigrant population of the surrounding Lower East Side neighborhood during its early years. Although it also hosted many high-society functions catering to the uppertens of the city, the hall earned a reputation as a gathering place for leftist, socialist, anarchist and labor union activity very early on. In 1912, Emma Goldman, the outspoken exponent of Anarchism, free love and birth control, led a march that brought the children of striking Lawrence, Massachusetts millworkers to the hall for a meal in order to dramatize the struggles of the working-class. In 1916, it was used as the strike headquarters for the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union; in 1920 meetings of the Sacco and Vanzetti Defense Committee were also held at Webster Hall. In the 1910s and 20s, Webster Hall became known for its masquerade balls and other soirees reflecting the hedonism of the city's Bohemians. Nicknamed the "Devil's Playhouse" by the socialist magazine ''The Masses,'' Webster Hall became particularly known for the wilder and more risque events of the time; Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Stella, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Charles Demuth, Scott Fitzgerald and many other notables regularly attended events there during this time. The coming of Prohibition did not restrict the availability of alcohol at these events. Local politicians and police were said to turn a blind eye to the activities; at one time it was rumored that the venue was owned by the mobster Al Capone. The repeal of Prohibition was the reason for one of Webster Hall's biggest celebrations, "The Return of John Barleycorn." In 1938, reporting on a fire in the building, the ''New York Times'' wrote: "Webster Hall ... began by seeing redcheeked debutantes introduced to society and ended – if ended it has – by seeing red-nosed bohemians thumbing defiance at society."〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10F12FF3D5C1B7A93C1AB1789D85F4C8385F9&scp=2&sq=webster+hall+february+23+1938&st=p )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Webster Hall」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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