The president has threatened to block renovations and suggested the landmark could be demolished after courts ruled against his bid to rename it

It was born with the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. “Young people will come here and they will see this cultural centre,” Rose Kennedy, the mother of slain US president John F Kennedy, said at that opening night gala. “They will carry some of these ideas back to their different communities.”

More than half a century later, the potential death knell came just after 4.30pm on Tuesday with a perfunctory announcement on the public address system: “The centre is now closed to the public. Please exit the centre by way of the Hall of States.” Soon barricades had been erected and security guards were blocking access.

President says he will block renovation project unless court decision to bar his name from being added is overturned

• Kennedy Center leaders say Trump’s name on building may avoid ‘fiscal collapse’

Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the Kennedy Center would close “immediately” and threatened to cancel a planned renovation of the institution if federal courts did not allow his name to be placed on the front of the building.

Trump’s ultimatum came shortly after the president’s handpicked board voted, again, to close the institution’s performing arts building in Washington, citing safety and financial concerns.

Center’s Trump-installed leaders also say it is on brink of bankruptcy and could close as early as Tuesday

Leaders of the John F Kennedy Center for ⁠the Performing Arts say it is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy and could ⁠close as early ⁠as ​Tuesday.

The center’s Donald Trump-installed leaders argued that putting the president’s name on its facade may be the only way ⁠to avoid imminent and “certain fiscal collapse”, the Washington Post first reported, ​citing documents it ‌obtained.