Academy’s Past: Fire Leads to Academy Setback
A devastating fire would destroy the Lyceum’s next home, including the Lyceum’s priceless collection that took half a century to assemble.
Published February 18, 2025
By Nick Fetty
Digital Content Manager
NYU Medical School | 14th Street and 3rd Avenue | 1851-1866
The Lyceum of Natural History in the City of New York’s (“the Lyceum’s”) next home was in the newly constructed NYU Medical School at the intersection of E. 14th Street and 3rd Avenue.
The Lyceum was offered meeting space in the new facility but had to store most of its collection in the building’s cellar, while the library was deposited with the Mercantile Library Association. Unfortunately, the era in the NYU Medical School building would end with a devastating setback for the Lyceum.
On May 21, 1866, an arsonist set fire to the Academy of Music theatre, which spread to adjacent buildings and eventually enveloped the NYU Medical School facility. Half a century’s hard work was lost when the Lyceum’s collection – including “inter alia, John James Audubon’s collection of birds, an unrivalled mineralogical cabinet with specimens obtained by the New York State Geological Survey, and Samuel Latham Mitchill’s ichthyological Collection” – was destroyed. Fortunately, the library stored offsite survived.
Two firefighters perished in the ordeal, and the “death toll could have been considerably higher for eighteen other firemen were trapped inside the Academy but were quickly rescued.” Following the fire, there were calls to better fireproof buildings in New York City to prevent lives and irreplaceable items from being lost in the future. After the fire, the infamous Tammany Hall would be constructed near the site of the former NYC Medical School building.
Once again, the Lyceum was on the search for a new home, and after a brief stint at Clinton Hall, that next home became Mott Memorial Hall.
This is the sixth piece in an eleven-part series exploring the Academy’s past homes. Read:
