A few years later, the Windsor Arcade would rise in its place, only to be torn down and replaced by office buildings. Sadly, the hotel was destroyed in a fire in 1899. Again, people praised the amount of bathrooms (139, considered an outstanding number), and each of the suites had its own bathroom, a rarity for the time. It was lavishly appointed, and Daytonian in Manhattan has a detailed account of the hotel's history. Critics said the hotel was too far uptown to succeed, but owner John Daly was banking on visitors coming to and from the new Grand Central Terminal. Photos of the Fifth Avenue Hotel:īuilt in 1871, the Windsor Hotel occupied an entire block along Fifth Avenue from 46th to 47th Streets. Today, that building is on its way to becoming condos.
It closed in 1908 and was immediately demolished to make way for the Toy Center Building. It had a plain Italianate design, but inside, it offered guests the highest luxury available?including private bathrooms, something that was unheard of at the time. The Fifth Avenue Hotel, built in 1859 at 200 Fifth Avenue, had the first passenger elevator ever installed in a U.S. It was torn down in 1929 in order to build the Empire State Building, and its present-day successor was built not long after. The hotel transformed redefined the contemporary hotel, making it a place not just for transient visitors but also a social hot spot for New York's high society. The Waldorf rose first, in 1893, but when the Astoria was being constructed a few years later, the owners decided to join them so "Peacock Alley" was created as a connection between the two hotels. The original Waldorf-Astoria was located at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, and it started as two separate hotels. In 1964, it was demolished in order to build the controversial General Motors skyscraper. It had nearly 1,000 guest rooms, but the elegant Art Deco building lasted less than 40 years. McKim, Mead, and White designed the building, and it opened in 1927. Located at the southeast corner of Central Park, the Savoy-Plaza Hotel was part of a hotel trifecta with the Sherry-Netherland and Pierre.
It's unclear why the beautiful cast-iron building was torn down in 1927, but today the site is occupied by, you guessed it, a high-rise. That business model didn't work out too well, and soon the hotel reopened as the Park Avenue Hotel. In 1877, a wealthy businessman commissioned architect John Kellum to build a grand "Working Women" hotel for all the single ladies working in New York City. In 1951, it was torn down to build a high-rise office building. The Ritz was considered one of the best hotels in the city, and it reached its prime around the time of WWI. Warren and Wetmore also designed the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which rose on Madison Avenue at West 46th Street in 1917. It was rebuilt as the bland 28-story 335 Madison Avenue, formerly known as the Bank of America Plaza. In the 1980s, its owner gutted and stripped the hotel to its steel skeleton, even though it was landmarked. Italian gardens decorated the rooftop between the north and south towers, and in the winter, the gardens were converted into an ice skating rink. There was also a private elevator that went directly to the Presidential Suite. Architectural firm Warren and Wetmore designed the hotel, which had its own arrival corridor within Grand Central. The Biltmore Hotel opened as part of Grand Central's Terminal City in 1913. Today, the 54-story One Astor Plaza occupies the site. William Zeckendorf acquired the hotel in the 1950s, but then he went bankrupt in '65 and the hotel was demolished in 1967. Architects Clinton & Russell built the Beaux-Arts masterpiece, which boasted a long list of themed restaurants, banquet halls, galleries, and gardens. It was located on Broadway between 44th and 45th Streets, and it had a luxuriously landscaped rooftop garden and elaborate public rooms. Today, skyscrapers and office buildings stand where they all once stood.īuilt in 1904, the Hotel Astor was the successor to the Astor family's massive Waldorf-Astoria hotel (more on that below!). Most of these buildings were demolished in the mid-1900s, one burnt to the ground, and another was razed less than a decade ago. Yesterday, we revisited some of the most luxurious hotels of New York's past, and today we're celebrating these grand beauties with more than 100 vintage photos of 10 historic hotels that have been lost forever.
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