The mosque closed in 1985 with Dia turning the building into rehearsal and performance space largely for contemporary dance the same year.

In 1996, while dealing with financial troubles, Dia sold the building to the Joyce Theatre Foundation who continued to run it as a rehearsal and performance space for contemporary dance.

This building was originally built in 1855 by the city as the volunteers' headquarters for two fire companies on the site of a previous fireman's hall.

While drawings of this design exist, a late 1860s photo housed at the Museum of the City of New York of the building does not show a statue.

Carved into the piers on each side of the central main doorway were items used by firemen, namely ladders, hooks and axes.

[1] In 1893, the three ground floor entranceways were removed and replaced with cast iron columns and a cornice framing out two larger sets of doors.

A fire broke out in the firehouse one night; to wake up and alert the firemen, Jenny threw billiard balls down a flight of stairs.

In the hopes of having choreographers Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis purchase the building, a deed restriction was placed on it by Community Board 2 so that it could be used only for "modern dance performances, rehearsals and educational activities" according to The New York Times.

[3] The Dia Art Foundation purchased the stripped down structure, and in 1980, opened a Sufi mosque, named Masjid al-Farah, in it.

The first meetings were framed as "roundtable" discussions and were presented as part of the Democracy exhibition by Group Material (specifically its members Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres).

These first meetings centered on education, electoral politics, cultural participation, and the AIDS crisis at the end of the Reagan era.

Baked goods were sold by artists and curators such as Chuck Close, Robert Gober, Eric Fischl, Brooke Alexander, and the then director of the Whitney Museum of American Art David Ross.

January 1996 saw a change in Dia's board, and in October of the same year, it was announced that the building was to be sold to the Joyce Theatre Foundation for $1.5 million.

[11] In 2013, Thor Equities began work on restoring the building; the renovation referenced its original design but was not an exact replica.

[13] In March 2023, Thor and ASB sold the building for $60 million to the firm Weybourne, associated with the British businessman James Dyson.