Evelyn Sharp (died April 16, 1997) was an American hotelier, philanthropist, and art collector. She was the owner of the

Beverly Wilshire The Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, commonly known as the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, is a historic luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Located at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive, it was completed in 1928. It has ...

and Stanhope hotels.

Biography

Sharp was a native of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and attended

Columbia University School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sc ...

, where she married her husband, real estate investor Jesse Sharp, who built a number of hotels including the

Stanhope Hotel 995 Fifth Avenue is a 16-story co-op apartment building at 995 Fifth Avenue and East 81st Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, across Fifth Avenue from Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Fifth Avenue building ...

, located opposite the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. After her husband died in 1941, Sharp, who was then an interior decorator, took over the business and enriched the family real estate portfolio with her own. She sold 14 properties owned by her husband and added the

Gotham Hotel The Peninsula New York is a historic luxury hotel at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1905 as the Gotham Hotel, the structure was designed by Hiss and Weekes in the neo-classical style. The hotel ...

, the

Saranac Inn The Saranac Inn was a large, luxurious hotel located on a peninsula at the northern end of the Upper Saranac Lake in the town of Santa Clara in the Adirondacks in New York State, United States. It was frequented by US Presidents Grover Cleveland ...

, and the

Beverly Wilshire Hotel The Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, commonly known as the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, is a historic luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Located at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive, it was completed in 1928. It has ...

. Her portfolio also included

Delmonico's Delmonico's is the name of a series of restaurants that operated in New York City, with the present version located at 56 Beaver Street in the Financial District of Manhattan. The original version was widely recognized as the United States ...

, the

Ritz Tower The Ritz Tower is a luxury residential building at 465 Park Avenue on the corner of East 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was built from 1925 to 1926 as an apartment hotel and was designed by Emery Roth an ...

The Carlyle The Carlyle is a tall skyscraper in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, located at 100 Third Avenue South. Completed in 2007, The Carlyle has 41 floors and 249 units. It is the 12th-tallest building in Minneapolis, and the 2nd tallest residential ...

, the Beaux Arts Apartments and the

Paramount Building 1501 Broadway, also known as the Paramount Building, is a 33-story office building on Times Square between West 43rd Street (Manhattan), 43rd and 44th Street (Manhattan), 44th Streets in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District neighb ...

in Manhattan, and the

St. Francis Hotel The Westin St. Francis, formerly known as St. Francis Hotel, is a hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square, San Francisco, California. The two 12-story south wings of the hotel were built in 1904, and the double-width north wing ...

in San Francisco. She eventually sold most of her holdings and devoted her time to charities in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and to her art collection, which went on display at the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

in 1978. She and her son also donated the Sharp Gallery at the

. In 1952, Sharp endowed the Evelyn Sharp Foundation to support the performing and fine arts, museum arts, and arts education in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She also endowed a graduate fellowship at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

and served as a trustee. She was also a founder of the

Los Angeles Music Center The Music Center (officially named the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County) is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Located in downtown Los Angeles, The Music Center is composed of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion ...

, a trustee of the

Menninger Foundation The Menninger Foundation was founded in 1919 by the Menninger family in Topeka, Kansas. The Menninger Foundation, known locally as Menninger's, consists of a clinic, a sanatorium, and a school of psychiatry, all of which bear the Menninger name. ...

, a past chairwoman of the

Martha Graham Dance Company The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded in 1926, is known for being the oldest American dance company. Founded by Martha Graham as a contemporary dance company, it continued to perform pieces, revive classics, and train dancers even after Graham's ...

, and La Maison Française at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Personal life and family

Sharp had two children: Peter Jay Sharp, and Mary Sharp Cronson. A past member of the

Forbes 400 The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is publ ...

, Peter Jay Sharp was in charge of the

Carlyle Hotel The Carlyle Hotel, known formally as The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel, is a combination luxury apartment hotel located at 35 East 76th Street on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and East 76th Street, on the Upper East Side of New York City. O ...

and developed

450 Park Avenue 450 Park Avenue (also known as Franklin National Bank Building) is an office building on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The building has 33 floors and is tall. 450 Park Avenue has a steel skeleton with concrete floors. The ...

and was the namesake of several Peter Jay Sharp Theaters in New York City. He was also a past chairman of

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, du ...

and was designated chairman of the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

before his death in 1992. Sharp's daughter, Mary S. Cronson, was a past trustee of the

and helped found the

Works & Process Works & Process at the Guggenheim is a performing-arts series at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Works & Process informs artistic creation through conversation and performance, and is presented in the Guggenheim’s Frank Lloyd W ...

performing arts series at the Guggenheim. Her grandson, Paul Cronson is also a trustee of the Guggenheim. Sharp died on April 13, 1997, at

Lenox Hill Hospital Lenox Hill Hospital (LHH) is a nationally ranked 450-bed non-profit, tertiary, research and academic medical center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, servicing the tri-state area. LHH is one of the region's many unive ...

. She was a resident of the

and the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Evelyn 1997 deaths Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni American real estate businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists American art collectors American hoteliers Businesspeople from Manhattan Women hoteliers