The Park Central Hotel is a 25-story, 935-room hotel located across the street from

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

at 870 7th Avenue (between West 55th and 56th Streets) in Midtown

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 ...

. It was designed in the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

style and opened on June 12, 1927. The Park Central is an independent hotel managed by Highgate Holdings.

Description

The 1600-room Park Central Hotel is named because of its proximity to

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

, though it does not have views of the park. It was designed in the

style and has housed such figures as

Jackie Gleason John Herbert Gleason (February 26, 1916June 24, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, writer, composer, and conductor known affectionately as "The Great One." Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was know ...

Mae West Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...

, and

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

, who kept a suite there from 1950 to 1953. It occupies the east half of the

city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...

between Seventh Avenue and

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 ...

. Anchoring the west half is 1740 Broadway, a 26-story,

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

formerly owned by

Mutual of New York The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (also known as Mutual of New York or MONY) was the oldest continuous writer of insurance policies in the United States. Incorporated in 1842, it was headquartered at 1740 Broadway, before becoming a wh ...

, with a

weather beacon A weather beacon is a beacon that indicates the local weather forecast in a code of colored or flashing lights. Often, a short poem or jingle accompanies the code to make it easier to remember. The beacon is usually on the roof of a tall buil ...

as well as an imposing

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

."No More MONY in the Midtown Skyline"
by David W. Dunlap, ''City Room'' (''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' local news blog), February 4, 2008.] The Mermaid Room was created as the hotel's cocktail bar and nightclub in the late 1940s.

Irving Fields Irving Fields (born Yitzhak Schwartz; August 4, 1915 – August 20, 2016) was an American pianist and lounge music artist who was born in New York City. Some of his most noteworthy compositions include "Miami Beach Rhumba"; " Managua, Nicaragua" ...

and his trio played there from 1950 to 1966.

History

Park Central Hotel is located on the former site of the Van Corlear building, the first apartment hotel in New York City, designed by

Henry Janeway Hardenbergh Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (February 6, 1847 – March 13, 1918) was an American architect, best known for his hotels and apartment buildings, and as a "master of a new building form — the skyscraper." Life and career Hardenbergh was born in ...

and built in 1879. The Van Corlear was demolished in 1921 to make way for the Park Central Hotel. Park Central Hotel jeh

The hotel was built by Harry A. Lanzer and opened on June 12, 1927. Lanzer sold the hotel to Sheraton in 1948 and it became the Park-Sheraton Hotel.Park Central Hotel, New York City
by Richard Johnson Sheraton renamed it The New York Sheraton Hotel in 1972, not to be confused with the later Sheraton New York Hotel. In 1983, Sheraton sold the hotel for $60 million to V.M.S. Realty, which contracted with Dunfey Hotels to manage the hotel through their

Omni Hotels Omni Hotels & Resorts is an American privately held, international luxury hotel company based in Dallas, Texas. The company was founded in 1958 as Dunfey Hotels, and operates 50 properties in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, totaling over 2 ...

division, and the hotel was renamed the Omni Park Central in January 1984. The hotel was sold to developer

Ian Bruce Eichner Ian Bruce Eichner (born June 25, 1945)The RealDeal: "Bruce Eichner" by ...

in 1995 and left the Omni chain, reverting to its original name, Park Central Hotel. Eichner converted half the hotel's 1,450 rooms into the Manhattan Club, a 266-unit, all-suite

timeshare A timeshare (sometimes called vacation ownership) is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owner ...

development located at the north side of the hotel at 200 West 56th Street. It is infamous as the site of the assassination of mobster

Albert Anastasia Umberto "Albert" Anastasia (, ; ; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman, and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organizat ...

, which took place on October 25, 1957, in the hotel's barber shop. Earlier, in 1928, the Jewish gangster and well-dressed prototype of the modern don,

Arnold Rothstein Arnold Rothstein (January 17, 1882 – November 4, 1928), nicknamed "The Brain", was an American racketeer, crime boss, businessman, and gambler in New York City. Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletic ...

, was shot and fatally wounded inside one of the suites. The silent-film actor

Roscoe Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked ...

died in 1933 from a heart attack in his sleep in his suite in the hotel. The hotel was the venue for the

National Football League Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

from 1980 to 1985. Today, the Park Central is an independent hotel managed by Highgate Holdings. The facade was renovated in 2007.

References

External links

* * * {{Coord, 40, 45, 53, N, 73, 58, 52, W, display=title Skyscraper hotels in Manhattan Midtown Manhattan 1927 establishments in New York City Hotels established in 1927 Hotel buildings completed in 1927 Renaissance Revival architecture in New York City Seventh Avenue (Manhattan) Hotels in Manhattan Sheraton hotels