natural light coming from the north, and could be used to paint up to four backdrops at a time. This room measured tall and deep, with a full-height glass wall facing north and slots in the floors. The carpentry shop could accommodate 25 workers. The costume department was housed in a separate room that could fit 50 seamstresses and a varying number of cutters. The storage spaces included a full storage warehouse as well as rooms to store scenery. According to contemporary media, the dressing rooms could fit 200 people. Each dressing room had a bathroom, and there were large rooms for supernumerary actors as well. The old scenery rooms have also become part of the Shubert Archive and contain artifacts such as librettos, orchestrations, and cash books. History Times Square became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression. Manhattan's theater district had begun to shift from Union Square and Madison Square during the first decade of the 20th century. These venues were developed following the construction of the Empire Theatre on 41st Street in 1893 and Hammerstein's Olympia in 1895. The Lyceum, Hudson, and New Amsterdam, which all opened in 1903, were among the first theaters to make this shift; the Lyceum is one of the oldest surviving Broadway theaters. From 1901 to 1920, forty-three theaters were built around Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, including the current Lyceum. Development Daniel Frohman had operated an earlier Lyceum Theatre on Fourth Avenue, near Madison Square, which had been built in 1885 by Steele MacKaye. Metropolitan Life acquired the old Lyceum in 1902 to make way for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. In February 1902, shortly after the old Lyceum was acquired, Frohman announced he had purchased six lots on 45th and 46th Streets near Times Square. He planned to build a 900-seat theater on the site after the leases on the lots expired. The auditorium would be on 45th Street, while a narrow wing with mechanical equipment and dressing rooms would be placed on 46th Street. Frohman hired Herts & Tallant to design the new theater, while the Fuller Construction Company was hired as the general contractor. The old Lyceum ultimately closed on March 22, 1902. Work on the new theater began on April 1, a week after the old Lyceum was closed. The cornerstone was laid on October 16, 1902, upon which thirteen of the