The Luxor Hotel 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 ...

was built by the D.P.R. Construction Company and opened in February 1925. The establishment is located at 121-127 West 46th Street in Manhattan. Built for $1,250,000, the structure has eighty-four guest rooms with a large bath establishment. The baths operated in connection with the hotel dormitories.

Hotel history

David Podolsky, a pioneer in the

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

movement, was president of the Luxor Hotel. He came to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1896 and assisted in forming

Chovevei Zion Hovevei Zion ( he, חובבי ציון, lit. ''hose who areLovers of Zion''), also known as Hibbat Zion ( he, חיבת ציון), refers to a variety of organizations which were founded in 1881 in response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian ...

, the original Zionist group. On November 28, 1932 the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court reversed a ruling for plaintiff and former

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

fireman, James Eagan. Earlier Eagan sued and won $32,5000 from the Luxor Hotel and Baths for personal injuries he sustained on December 5, 1930. He claimed that the hotel was negligent in posting no warning signs to indicate that the pool was only partially filled, at the time he dived in. Pool attendants called as defense witnesses testified that Eagan disregarded warning signs which were posted as well as verbal warnings from employees not to dive from a high platform, due to the shallowness of the pool water. He persisted and was injured. In 1934, Soviet rezident and Great Illegal

Valentin Markin Valentin Markin (aka "Arthur Walter") (1903 – 1934) was the chief illegal ''rezident'' and director of the espionage operations of the Soviet Union in the United States from 1933 to 1934. Markin headed the activities of both Soviet military i ...

received head wounds in the Luxor Baths from which he died shortly thereafter. Mayor

Abraham Beame Abraham David Beame (March 20, 1906February 10, 2001) was the 104th mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy. ...

called for the resignation of

Seymour Durst Seymour Bernard Durst (September 7, 1913 – May 15, 1995) was an American real estate investor and developer. He was the creator of the National Debt Clock. Early life and education Durst was born in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Ne ...

from the Mayor's Midtown Citizens Committee in March 1976. Durst, head of the Durst Organization, a real estate firm, had recently sold the Luxor Hotel to a group which wanted to convert the building into an elaborate massage and prostitution establishment. The Citizens Committee was set up in 1975 to rid the

Midtown (Manhattan) Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...

area of pornography and prostitution.''Durst Asked to Quit His Cleanup Post'', New York Times, March 12, 1976, pg. 36.

References

Luxor Hotel Luxor Las Vegas is a 30-story casino hotel situated on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The hotel is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International and has a casino with over 2,000 slot machines an ...

Hotels in Manhattan

Hotels established in 1925 Hotel buildings completed in 1925 Midtown Manhattan {{Manhattan-struct-stub