Gibbs Street, number 26, in Rochester, puts you at the Eastman Theatre. Look up and you’ll see the home that industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman built as a cultural center and as the home of the Eastman School of Music; it opened on September 4, 1922. The main auditorium has been formally known as Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre since 2009, and the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Designed by McKim, Mead & White in association with Gordon & Kaelber, the structure blends Italian Renaissance and Neo-Classical detail with Beaux-Arts massing. Inside are three distinct performance spaces: the 2,326-seat Kodak Hall, the 444-seat Kilbourn Hall, and the 222-seat Hatch Recital Hall. Since 1930 the Eastman Theatre has served as the primary concert venue of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and remains the main performance hall of the Eastman School of Music, a professional school of the University of Rochester.
Over the entrance the facade bears the inscription “For the enrichment of community life,” a phrase that speaks to Eastman’s intentions. Over the entrance the facade still bears the inscription For the enrichment of community life, George Eastman's intention carved above you.