As it celebrates its centennial year, Orchestra Hall’s legacy goes beyond its legendary acoustics or the roster of bold-faced names that have graced its stage. Built as the home for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1919, converted to the Paradise Theatre in the 1940s, threatened with demolition in the 1970s and later restored and expanded, the building’s dramatic history tells the complex economic and cultural story of Detroit in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Take a comprehensive look at the past with artifacts, images and audio that begin with the construction of Orchestra Hall and follow its history to modern day in this new exhibition. The story of Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the DSO music director for whom Orchestra Hall was built, is joined with the story of the Hall’s origins and first 20 years. Discover what happened in the years after the Detroit Symphony Orchestra left Orchestra Hall as new audiences adopted the structure for new purposes, breathing new life into the space. Learn about the rebirth of Orchestra Hall for a new age and how it serves the community today while looking ahead to tomorrow. 

Unique items on display include original seats from Orchestra Hall, a re-created 1920s coat room, a mold of Ossip Gabrilowitsch’s hand from the collection of the Detroit Public Library, hand-sculpted busts of all the DSO lead music directors and rarely seen art, architectural records and press clippings from the DSO’s archives. 

This exhibition was developed by the Detroit Historical Society in partnership with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Special thanks to guest writer Mark Stryker, creative consultant to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and author of Destiny: 100 Years of Music, Magic, and Community at Orchestra Hall in Detroit and Jazz from Detroit. This exhibition is generously underwritten by the DTE Energy Foundation and Ann and James B. Nicholson with additional support from the Ford Motor Company Fund.