The Savoy-Plaza Hotel was a 33-story hotel overlooking

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Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

and East 59th Street in

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 Buildin ...

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 opened in 1927 and was demolished in 1965.

History

Original Savoy Hotel

The original Savoy Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street opened in June 1892, more or less in answer to the neighboring

Plaza Hotel The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, a ...

opened in 1890. The original 12-story Savoy was designed by architect Ralph S. Townsend, for landowners including

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Justice P. Henry Dugro. The old Savoy continued to compete with the Plaza in lavish surroundings and expansions into the 1920s. Its furnishings were liquidated in 1925.

Savoy-Plaza Hotel

Harry S. Black, owner of the Plaza, bought the Savoy Hotel, consolidated the block, and demolished it to commission a newer companion to the older establishment from the architects of the Plaza. The 33-story, skyscraper Savoy-Plaza Hotel was designed by

McKim, Mead & White McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), Wil ...

, built at a cost of $30 million, and opened on October 1, 1927.

Hilton Hotels Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton. The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...

acquired the hotel in January 1957 through an exchange of stock with Savoy-Plaza, Inc. Hilton opened a

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within the hotel on April 14, 1958, in a space formerly occupied by the Red Coach Inn. On December 31, 1958, the full merger of Savoy-Plaza, Inc. and Hilton Hotels Corporation became effective, and the hotel was renamed the Savoy Hilton. Hilton sold the hotel to Webb & Knapp, Inc. in May 1962, for $25 million. That November, Webb & Knapp resold a two-thirds interest to British Commercial Property Investments and a one-third interest to

London Merchant Securities Derwent London is a British-based property investment and development business. It is headquartered in London and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The business was originally established as the operator of the Derwent Valley Lig ...

. Hilton and the hotel's owners agreed to end the chain's management of the hotel in 1964, though the contract continued through 1967. Western International Hotels assumed management on June 2, 1964, renaming the property The Savoy Plaza, without the original hyphen. The owners announced plans for the hotel's demolition on August 21, 1964, leading to a significant public outcry and protests. On December 16, 1964, the owners announced that the hotel would be replaced by a 48-story office tower, designed by

Edward Durell Stone Edward Durell Stone (March 9, 1902 – August 6, 1978) was an American architect known for the formal, highly decorative buildings he designed in the 1950s and 1960s. His works include the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, the Museo de A ...

to house the Eastern headquarters of

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

. The hotel remained open through the

1964 New York World's Fair The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or ...

, finally closing in October 1965. It was demolished in late 1965 and early 1966 and replaced with the

General Motors Building A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

, completed in 1968.

References

{{coord, 40.7638, N, 73.9728, W, source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:US, display=title Hotels established in 1927 Hotel buildings completed in 1927 Demolished hotels in New York City Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Skyscraper hotels in Manhattan Buildings and structures demolished in 1965 Former skyscrapers Midtown Manhattan Fifth Avenue 59th Street (Manhattan)

History

Original Savoy Hotel

Savoy-Plaza Hotel

See also

References