page_title: Otto H. Kahn House
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Otto H. Kahn House / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Otto H. Kahn, Managing Director of the Metropolitan Opera Company Identifier: morechaptersofop00kreh (find matches) Title: More chapters of opera&#160;: being historical and critical observations and records concerning the lyric drama in New York from 1908 to 1918 Year: 1919 (1910s) Authors: Krehbiel, Henry Edward, 1854-1923 Subjects: Opera Publisher: New York&#160;: H. Holt and company Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: 0 to $1,000, or a subscribing member for $100 or less.The plan was to become operative on the receipt of sub-scriptions amounting to $300,000, a board of directors wasto be elected by the founders and stockholders on the basisof the amount subscribed, and the City Club, through itsboard of trustees, was to appoint three directors each year. On May 4, 1913, the City Club announced that subscrip-tions amounting to one-third of the $300,000 had been se-cured. Mr. Kahn subscribed $30,000, William K. Vander-bilt and Clarence H. Mackay $15,000 each, Harry PayneWhitney $5,000, a,nd members of the City Club $25,000.The ^Century Opera Company was incorporated on May 9,1913, with a capital stock of $300,000 and organized by theelection of Edward Kellogg Baird, president; Otto H. Kahn,vice-president; Alvin W. Krech, treasurer; Edward R.Finch, secretary, and the following Board of Directors:Otto H. Kahn, chairman; Edward Kellogg Baird, EdmundL. Baylies, William C. Cornwell, Andreas Dippel, Edward Text Appearing After Image: Otto H. Kahn, Managing Director of the Metropolitan Opera Company PLANS FOR THE FIRST SEASON 177 R. Finch, Alvin W. Krech, Thomas W. Lamont, Philip M.Lydig, Clarence H. Mackay, George McAneny, Paul M.Warburg, Harry Payne Whitney, Henry Rogers Winthrop,and Frank A. Vanderlip. These gentlemen made a fairrepresentation of three public institutions: the Metropoli-tan Opera House, the Century Theater, and the City Club.They chose Milton and Sargent Aborn as General Man-agers of the company and intrusted them with the admin-istration of the first season of opera, which began at theCentury Theater on September 15, 1913, with a perform-ance in English of Aida. The Messrs. Aborn had hadexperience in giving opera of the crude and cheap Englishvariety, their peripatetic companies being generally made upof singers who had gained some stage experience in operettaor native and foreign companies, and novices ambitious toenter the operatic field. There were many companies liketheirs devastating the mus Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: The Otto H. Kahn House was built between 1914 and 1918 as the New York City residence of Otto H. Kahn, a German-born financier and philanthropist. The mansion is located at 1 East 91st Street, in the Carnegie Hill section of the Upper East Side.
context_section_description: Kahn, a senior partner at the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb and Co., commissioned the architects J. Armstrong Stenhouse and C. P. H. Gilbert to build his home in the neo-Italian renaissance style. The mansion was modeled after the palazzo della Cancelleria of the Papal Chancellery in Rome. It took four years to construct the mansion, which has up to 80 rooms, in addition to living quarters for 40 servants, making it among the largest and finest private homes in America.
  The mansion includes an indoor courtyard, garden, and private driveway, which was guarded 24 hours a day by a doorman, as well as an oak-paneled library and spacious reception room.  Upon its completion, the Architectural Review praised the mansion as "a remarkable example of well-balanced re-adjustment in those aesthetic elements that are found in architecture of the early sixteenth century in Italy" and deemed J. Armstrong Stenhouse to have "achieved a work which ranks as the foremost of its kind in this country."
  Kahn housed an extensive art collection inside the mansion, including tapestries, glass chandeliers, and valuable paintings by Botticelli. Enrico Caruso and George Gershwin were among the Kahn's many famous friends, who were often known to give impromptu performances at the mansion.
caption: Otto H. Kahn, Managing Director of the Metropolitan Opera Company
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