The Metropolitan Hotel in

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 ...

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 ...

, opened September 1, 1852, and was demolished in 1895. It was built at a time of a "hotel boom" in response to the opening of the New York Crystal Palace exhibition of 1853. It occupied a three-hundred-foot

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

-faced

frontage Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...

of four floors above fashionable shopfronts occupying 300 feet on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and 200 feet on

Prince Street The Prince Street station is a local station on the BMT Broadway Line of the New York City Subway. Located in SoHo, Manhattan, it is served by the R train at all times except late nights, the W train on weekdays, the N train during late nig ...

. The site, formerly that of

Niblo's Garden Niblo's Garden was a theater on Broadway and Crosby Street, near Prince Street, in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1823 as "Columbia Garden" which in 1828 gained the name of the ''Sans Souci'' and was later the property of ...

, was owned by Stephen Van Rensselaer, and the architects were Joseph Trench and

John Butler Snook John Butler Snook (1815–1901) was an American architect who practiced in New York City and was responsible for the design of a number of notable cast-iron buildings, most of which are now in and around the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, as ...

, who designed the hotel in the "grand commercialized style reminiscent of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

palazzo A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

s," with many of its furnishings imported from Europe, including the largest plate-glass mirrors in the United States: the interior decorations and furnishings were claimed in 1866 to have cost $200,000. It could shelter six hundred guests, in steam-heated rooms and in "family apartments" with private drawing rooms. The Metropolitan, operated on the "American plan" that included three meals a day, was managed by the Leland brothers, organizers of the first American

hotel chain A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

.Simeon Leland built a residence "

Leland Castle Leland Castle (also known as Castle View) is a building in New Rochelle, New York. It was constructed during the years in 1855 - 1859 in the Gothic Revival style, and was the country residence of Simeon Leland, a wealthy New York City hotel pr ...

" in

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

. Unlike many New York hotels, the Metropolitan allowed the slaves of its Southern patrons to stay on the premises. Mary Todd Lincoln and her black seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley stayed at the Metropolitan on various occasions. In 1860, a delegation of Japanese arrived in New York to learn about technological advances and to visit the City. The Lelands hosted them and sought to provide privacy for the unusually attired foreign guests who were hounded by the curious press and public. The Civil War presented the City with an economic downturn, and the Metropolitan's lavish proprietors suffered great economic losses. After 1871, the hotel was for a time managed by Richard Tweed, son of the infamous

William M. Tweed William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878), often erroneously referred to as William "Marcy" Tweed (see below), and widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany ...

("Boss Tweed"), who became the hotel's proprietor. The Metropolitan Hotel closed and was demolished in 1895.

References

External links

Metropolitan Hotel
at the

Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these i ...

The lost Metropolitan Hotel
1852 establishments in New York (state) Broadway (Manhattan) Buildings and structures demolished in 1895 Defunct hotels in Manhattan Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Hotel buildings completed in 1852 Hotels disestablished in 1895 Hotels established in 1852 SoHo, Manhattan {{NewYork-hotel-stub

See also

References

External links