Hotel Churchill 1850

On the southeast corner of Broadway and Fourteenth Street is the Hotel Churchill, formerly the Morton House, and originally the Union Place Hotel, established in 1850.

The Fifth Avenue Hotel 1859

This was the Fifth Avenue Hotel, which was the usual stopping place of most of the presidents after 1860 when they visited the city. The Hotel opened its doors in 1859 at the junction of Broadway and Fifth Avenue. The proprietor was Paran Stevens.

When Arthur was President, he received here the first Corean embassy that visited the country. The interpreter was a naval officer named Foulke, a classmate of the author. It was here that in 1884, during the Blaine-Cleveland campaign, the Rev. Mr. Burchard made use of his famous saying in referring to the Democratic Party as the party of " Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." The alliterative remark, made in the presence of Mr. Blaine, went unrebuked at the time; and as it was repeated in the public press throughout the country, it gained such wide notoriety as to aid materially in the defeat of Mr. Blaine for the presidency. The hotel also sheltered the famous "Amen Corner", where the politicians, journalists, and newspaper men used to gather in social intercourse, resulting in an annual dinner somewhat resembling that of the famous "Grid-iron Club" of the national capital. At these dinners gather the jurists, editors, journalists, and politicians, and current affairs are burlesqued in such a manner as to make lots of fun, at the same time conveying a moral. The hotel was demolished in 1908, making way for the great office edifice now occupying the site.

The Hoffman House 1864

It was standing on the corner of Broadway and Twenty-fifth street, occupying nearly the whole block. Almost from its opening day the Hoffman House was knee-deep in politics. Boss Tweed made it a sort of unofficial annex to Tammany Hall, meeting there with his henchmen to plan campaign strategy. The Hoffman House had earlier been headquarters for Generals Winfield Scott and Benjamin F. Butler when they were sent to New York in 1864 to help put down the bloody draft riots which threatened to sweep Manhattan into the arms of the Confederacy.

The Gilsey House 1871

The Gilsey House opened in New York City in April of 1871, located at Broadway and 29th street. West and North of the Hotel was the notorious district known as Tenderloin. Army and Navy officers liked its proximity to the theaters, while railroad magnates and coal operators met there to eat, drink and hatch schemes of reorganization and development.

The Windsor Hotel 1873

The Windsor Hotel occupied the block between Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh streets on Fifth Avenue. The Windsor became the worst hotel fire in New York's history.

The Grand Union Hotel 1874

Simeon Ford, was the proprietor of New York City's Grand Union Hotel, located on Park Avenue, only a walk away from Grand Central Station. The emphasis was on quality at economy prices. The cafe, lunchroom, restaurants and wine rooms offered "the best" but at prices carefully quoted below New York's luxury hotels. Simeon Ford decided in 1914 to close the doors of the Grand Union and put everything up for sale. Tuesday, May 12, was to signal the end of yet another of New York's notable Victorian hotels.

The Buckingham Hotel 1876

Located at Fifth avenue at the corner of Fiftieth Street. All the bedrooms had open fireplaces and most were in suites, parlor, bedchamber, bathroom and toilet room, these latter entirely separate to guard against "the escape of noxious gases." The most elaborate of the suites began at sixty-five dollars a week. The Buckingham closed in June of 1922.

The Women's Hotel 1878

It was located at Fourth avenue., 32d & 33d Sts. The building erected by Mr. Stewart has been completed in accordance with his plans and purposes as a home for women who support themselves by daily labor. It was opened on April 3, 1878. It had eight large reception rooms, steam elevators, and sleeping rooms, over Five hundred in number. Board and Lodging for each person was at the rate of six dollars a week.

The Park Avenue Hotel 1878

It was located on Park avenue between Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets. It opened on April 2, 1878. The proprietors were Wm. H. Earle & Son.

The Hotel Vendome 1889

This was located at Forty-first Street and Broadway. The opening day was October 1, 1889.

The Waldorf Astoria 1893

The Opening day was March 14, 1893, built on the site of William Waldorf Astor's mansion at Thirty-third Street and Fifth Avenue.. Although it opened in the financial panic of 1893, the Waldorf was a glittering success from the start. The Astoria Hotel opened with fanfare on November 1, 1897. Colonel Astor consented to a passage linking the two hotels, but with the proviso that it could be shut off if the partnership with George C. Bolt, proprietor of Waldorf did not prove to his liking. Both hotels were both designed by the same architect, Henry J. Hardenbergh. Even before the Astoria joined it, the Waldorf was the chosen gathering place of New York society. An account in the 1890's describes the silk-stocking crowds assembled during the annual Horse Show Week. During its gilded years, the ballroom was the scene of brilliant affairs honoring Theodore Roosevelt as newly elected Governor.

The Plaza Hotel

In May of 1890, the eight-story red brick Plaza cost $3,000,000 was located at Fifty-ninth Street and Fifth Avenue. Then in the fall of 1907, a new hotel was built on the site of the old one. The New Plaza cost $12,500,000. The Plaza Hotel was to be the home of New York's blue blood and riches, such as A.G. Vanderbilt, George J. Gould, Oliver Harriman, John W. Gates and John Drake.

The Hotel McAlpin

There is now in course of construction on the block between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets, on the east side, the Hotel McAlpin, which is to be a commercial hotel twenty-five stories high, with stores on the ground floor, one of which at the Thirty-fourth Street corner has already been rented at twenty dollars a square foot, the highest rent paid in New York. The hotel is to be the largest in the city and will cost for building, furnishings, lease, etc., over thirteen millions of dollars..