Actually facing on Hopper Street, the New Century Auditorium was added to the east side of the clubhouse of Utica's New Century Club as a public assembly space. The date of its erection is unknown; the Club, a prominent women's community-service organization, was founded in 1893.
The auditorium's stage was the site of presentations by prominent suffragist Susan B. Anthony and Jeannette Rankin, the first elected U.S. Congresswoman. On the evening of Thursday, October 17, 1912, New Century Auditorium hosted a public session of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA)'s Forty-Fourth National Convention. Representatives of the Democratic, Republican, and Progressive Parties spoke and were quizzed by organizers on what each party had done of late to support the suffrage cause. A Socialist Party representative was invited but did not appear.
Other venues used by this convention included Thorn Memorial Chapel and the Hotel Utica.
The yellow-brick auditorium is designed in a Greek Revival style, typical of buildings erected in downtown Utica during the late nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September 1985.
The New Century Club dissolved as a nonprofit organization on January 13, 2009. A commercial developer specializing in rehabilitation of historic structures has announced that it has added the Auditorium to its roster of properties. The announcement shows a picture of the Auditorium, but it speaks vaguely of the "New Century Building." At this writing is remains unclear whether Bowers Development plans to restore the Auditorium alone or the Auditorium and clubhouse together.
The New Century Club building is seen at center in this hand-colored postcard image (yellowish brick). The Auditorium is the columned, flat-faced red-brick structure at right, running along Hopper Street. Photo courtesy of Timothy Binga, Center for Inquiry Libraries.
October 15–18, 1912