The Taft Hotel building is a 22-story
pre-war Spanish Renaissance structure that occupies the eastern side of
Seventh Avenue between
50th and
51st Streets, just north of
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
, in 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 Buildin ...
neighborhood of New York City. In its modern configuration, it features two separate portions with their own entrance on 51st Street. The larger portion is devoted to the residential condominium called Executive Plaza, with each of its 440 units being privately owned. Certain units are rented by their owners to the public. A smaller portion of the building contains The Michelangelo, a
Starhotels hotel
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 ...
.
History
Hotel Manger
On October 22, 1924, it was announced that
Manger Hotels
Manger Hotels (later Manger Hotels & Motor Inns) was a major 20th-century national chain of luxury hotels, full service motor inns, and upscale motels. Originally founded in 1907 as a chain of luxury hotels by Julius and William Manger, the compan ...
, owned by the Manger brothers, had purchased a block on
Seventh Avenue between
50th and
51st Streets from Realty Associates and
Bing & Bing
Bing & Bing was one of the most important apartment real estate developers in New York City in the early 20th century.
The firm was founded by Leo S. Bing (1874–1956) and his brother, Alexander M. Bing (1878–1959). The brothers often worked w ...
for approximately $5.5 million, after plans for a sports arena on that site fell through.
H. Craig Severance was hired to design a 1,250 room hotel and Bing & Bing were named the general contractors for the project. The twenty-story, Spanish Renaissance-style Hotel Manger opened on November 15, 1926.
At the time, the 2,250-room Manger was the largest hotel in the
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
area, and the third largest in Manhattan. The development cost more than $10 million (equivalent to more than $ million in ), an enormous amount of money at the time. The enormous hotel was connected to the famous
Roxy Theatre, a movie and stage show palace that opened a few months later, on March 11, 1927. The lobby of the Roxy was actually located in the 50th St and Seventh Avenue corner of the hotel structure. Madison Square Garden was a block to the west and drew thousands for major events.
Hotel Taft
In 1931, Manger Hotels sold the hotel to Bing & Bing, which renamed it the Hotel Taft, after President
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
.
["POSTINGS: Remember the Taft?; A StarHotel on 51st Street"](_blank)
''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 ...
'', June 28, 1992. Accessed August 12, 2009.
One of the hotel's most famous features was the Taft Grill.
The
George Hall Orchestra (sometimes called the George Hall Taft Hotel Orchestra) performed from the hotel on Monday through Saturday at noon on
CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...
, starring
Dolly Dawn
Dolly Dawn (born Theresa Maria Stabile; February 3, 1916 – December 11, 2002) was an American big band singer. She was vocalist with George Hall (musician), George Hall's Hotel Taft Orchestra in the 1930s, and later had a solo career.
Life
She ...
. The band's signature song was "
Love Letters in the Sand
"Love Letters in the Sand" is a popular song first published in 1931. The music was written by J. Fred Coots and the lyrics by Nick Kenny and Charles Kenny. Ted Black and His Orchestra, with vocalist Tom Brown, had the first major hit recording of ...
".
Other big band performances were by
Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky; May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction.
Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led ...
,
Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat (; 1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was a Spanish musician and bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. In New York City ...
,
Tommy
Tommy may refer to:
People
* Tommy (given name)
* Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film
* ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...
and
Jimmy Dorsey
James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peop ...
,
Glenn Miller
Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Arm ...
, and
Tony Pastor
Antonio Pastor (May 28, 1837 – August 26, 1908) was an American impresario, variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. He was sometimes referr ...
.
Vincent Lopez
Vincent Lopez (December 30, 1895 – September 20, 1975) was an American bandleader, actor, and pianist.
Early life and career
Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, Distinguished Am ...
performed in residency for 20 years and broadcast a radio show from the hotel, with
Gloria Parker
Gloria Parker (née Rosenthal; August 20, 1921April 13, 2022) was an American musician and bandleader who had a radio show during the big band era. ''The Gloria Parker Show'' was broadcast nightly from 1950 to 1957, coast to coast on WABC. She ...
, ''Shake the Maracas''. Lopez later broadcast a TV show from the Taft on the
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
, ''
Dinner Date
''Dinner Date'' is a British dating game show, which first aired on ITV from 9 August 2010 to 28 December 2012, with subsequent new series airing on sister channel ITVBe since 8 October 2014. The programme makes up a significant proportion of ...
'', from January to July 1950.
On May 26, 1933,
Jimmie Rodgers
James Charles Rodgers (September 8, 1897 – May 26, 1933) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Widely regarded as "the Father of Country Music", he is best known for his distinctive rhythmi ...
(the Father of Country Music) died here at the age of 35 from a long battle with tuberculosis. This occurred just two days after completing what was his final recording session for Victor Records.
In 1955, actor
Philip Loeb
Philip Loeb (March 28, 1891 – September 1, 1955), was an American stage, film, and television actor, director and author. He was blacklisted under McCarthyism and committed suicide in response.
Early life
Philip Loeb was born March 28, 1891, ...
died from an overdose of sleeping pills at the hotel after being caught up in the
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying emplo ...
scandal.
In 1957, J.I. Lubin & Associates sold the hotel to Lawrence A. Wien. In 1958, Wien re-sold the hotel to Zeckendorf Hotels Corporation. In 1961, Zeckendorf re-sold the hotel to the Breitbart Corporation.
A scene from the 1967 film ''
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' may refer to:
* ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' (book), a 1952 book written by Shepherd Mead and the inspiration for the musical of the same name.
* ''How to Succeed in Bu ...
'', in which Finch follows a rival executive to a football pep party, was shot at the hotel.
The 1960 demolition of the Roxy Theatre, the 1968 demolition of
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
, the increasing presence of unsavory businesses in the area, and the desire for newer, more elegant hotels contributed to the gradual decay of the Taft Hotel.
In 1974, Urban Renewal Housing and Development Corporation, headed by Gilbert M. Federbush, acquired the hotel from Lawrence A. Wien. At the time, the hotel was struggling with a 51% occupancy rate and losing $80,000 a month. A year later, the hotel fell into receivership and was foreclosed on by its lender, the
Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company Penn may refer to:
Places
England
* Penn, Buckinghamshire
* Penn, West Midlands
United States
* Penn, North Dakota
* Penn, Oregon
* Pennsylvania
** Penn, Pennsylvania
* Penn Lake Park, Pennsylvania
* Penn Township (disambiguation), several muni ...
.
Mixed-use Conversion
![Tgif-nyc](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Tgif-nyc.jpg)
From 1984-1986, the hotel was converted to mixed use, at a cost of $100 million, buoyed by the economic recovery of the area, especially the 1983 announcement of the $200 million
Equitable Center office tower, across 51st Street to the north.
Taft Partners Development Group, which converted the building, consisted of Steven Goodstein from the Goodstein Construction Company, Hank Sopher of J.I. Sopher & Company and Arthur Cohen, chairman of Arlen Realty and Development Corporation. The architect for the conversion was Wechsler-Grasso-Menziuso. The eighth through the 21st floors were rebuilt as 448 condominiums, known as Executive Plaza, while the first seven floors were occupied by the 179-room Grand Bay Hotel at Equitable Center, which opened in October 1986. The hotel and the condominiums had separate entrances side by side on
51st Street.
In 1990, Park Lane Hotels International acquired the hotel portion and renamed it the Parc Fifty One Hotel. In 1992,
Starhotels acquired the hotel for $42 million and renamed it The Michelangelo.
The Executive Plaza residential
condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
portion of the building was listed in a 2015 ''
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 d ...
'' article as having the highest proportion of
non-primary residences of any building in Manhattan, at 74.4%. The building allows owners to rent out their apartments by the month, and most of the apartments are small – some under 400 square feet. One real estate broker suggested, "It isn’t surprising that it would have the highest ratio of investor apartments, because it operates more like a hotel than a condo."
The building includes a
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse on West 51st Street, and once contained America's largest
T.G.I. Friday's restaurant, located in the space that once housed the lobby of the
Roxy Theatre. The T.G.I. Friday's closed due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
References
External links
The Michelangelo official websiteExecutive Plaza official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michelangelo
Buildings and structures completed in 1926
Hotels in Manhattan
Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Midtown Manhattan
Manger hotels
Hotel buildings completed in 1926
Hotels established in 1926
Hotels established in 1986