4 Park Avenue (formerly known as the Vanderbilt Hotel) is a 22-story building in the
Murray Hill neighborhood of
Manhattan in
New York City. Designed by
Warren and Wetmore, the structure was built for
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt and opened in 1912 as a hotel. It is along the west side of
Park Avenue between 33rd and
34th Streets. Following a renovation by
Schuman, Lichtenstein & Claman between 1965 and 1967, the top 18 stories have been used as residential apartments. The lowest three stories above ground, as well as three basement levels, are used as commercial space and carry an alternate address of 6 Park Avenue. , the building is owned by
The Feil Organization
The Feil Organization is a family-owned real estate investment, development, and management company in New York City governed by a nine-member board, with a portfolio of $7 billion as of 2013.
The Feil Organization is one of New York City's oldes ...
.
4 Park Avenue's facade was originally made of gray brick and white
architectural terracotta. The facade of the lowest four stories dates from the 1960s renovation and is made of glass and steel. Above that, the building retains its original facade and has two
light courts facing Park Avenue. The building has a steel
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
and had mechanical equipment in its basements. The hotel's lobby was designed in the
Adam style and is partially preserved as the modern residential lobby. The first basement had a grill room known as the Della Robbia Room, decorated ornately with
Guastavino tile; part of the room survives and is designated as a
New York City interior landmark. The upper stories had close to 600 rooms, and the top two stories originally contained a private
penthouse apartment for A. G. Vanderbilt and his family.
After several years of planning and construction, the Vanderbilt Hotel opened on January 10, 1912, as one of the first large commercial developments in Murray Hill. The Vanderbilt soon became a popular meeting place for companies in the textile and women's apparel industries. A syndicate bought the hotel in 1925, and the
New York Life Insurance Company foreclosed on the hotel in 1935.
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 ...
acquired the hotel in 1941 and continued to operate it until the hotel closed in 1965. A group led by John Marqusee bought the building in 1966 and spent the next year converting the hotel into residences and offices. The building has undergone minor renovations over the years.
Site
4 Park Avenue (formerly the Vanderbilt Hotel) is in the
Murray Hill neighborhood of
Manhattan in
New York City, bounded by 33rd Street on the south,
Park Avenue on the east, and
34th Street on the north.
The building's
land lot
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the same thing) in ...
has a total area of .
It measures from north to south and from west to east.
An entrance to the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
's
33rd Street station is directly outside the building's southeast corner.
The building is on the same block as the
Madison Belmont Building to the west. Other nearby buildings include
2 Park Avenue
2 Park Avenue is a 28-story office building in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The structure, along the west side of Park Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets, was designed by Ely Jacques Kahn and was developed by A ...
to the south,
3 Park Avenue
3 Park Avenue is a mixed-use office building and high school erected in 1973 on Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. The building, surrounded on three sides by a plaza, is categorized as a Midtown South address in the Kips Bay, Manhattan, M ...
to the east,
B. Altman and Company Building
The B. Altman and Company Building is a commercial building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, that formerly served as B. Altman and Company's flagship department store. It occupies an entire city block between Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, ...
to the northwest, and
29 East 32nd Street
29 East 32nd Street (also known as the Old Grolier Club or Gilbert Kiamie House) in New York City was originally the Grolier Club building when it was built in 1889. Its architecture by Charles W. Romeyn"AIA Guide to New York City", 4th Edition, p ...
to the southwest.
The adjacent portion of Park Avenue slopes upward from south to north. The site was part of the 18th-century estate of merchant
Robert Murray.
In the 1860s, after the
Park Avenue Tunnel was built, the segment of Fourth Avenue between 34th and 40th Streets was renamed Park Avenue, while the avenue's name south of 34th Street remained unchanged.
Since the
house numbering system reset at the southern end of Park Avenue, the Vanderbilt Hotel and other buildings between 32nd and 34th Streets originally had Fourth Avenue addresses.
The segment from 32nd to 34th Streets, outside the current building, was renamed Park Avenue in 1924,
at which time the building gained a Park Avenue address.
Even before the renumbering, the Vanderbilt Hotel had marketed itself as being at "East 34th Street and Park Avenue" despite technically being on Fourth Avenue.
Fourth and Park Avenues in Murray Hill had been developed with upscale residences by the 1870s. The residences included those of the
Vanderbilt family, who built
Grand Central Depot (later
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
) for the New York and Harlem Railroad several blocks north in 1871. The Vanderbilt family moved uptown in 1880 but retained ownership of the site.
Just before present-day 4 Park Avenue was developed, the land had been occupied by six buildings.
Architecture
4 Park Avenue was designed by
Warren and Wetmore in the
neoclassical style
and developed by
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt in 1912.
Numerous other contractors were involved in the construction process.
As built, it was 22 stories high and contained three full basements, as well as a partial fourth basement level.
Emporis
Emporis GmbH was a real estate data mining company that was headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022.
On 12 Sept ...
cites the building as being 20 stories and high.
The building's modern appearance dates to a renovation by
Schuman, Lichtenstein & Claman between 1965 and 1967.
Form and facade
Lowest stories
When the building was constructed, it was decorated with gray brick and white
architectural terracotta.
The terracotta at the base was designed by the
Hartford Faience Company
Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded County (United States), county government in 19 ...
.
The ornament consisted of cream-colored
low reliefs, while the walls were made of mottled, semi-glazed brick in blue-grey and plum colors.
Originally, the base of the building contained large windows with semicircular
lunette
A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void.
A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...
windows at their tops. The lunettes were surrounded by
Adam style frames that resembled fans.
The entrance was at the center of the Park Avenue elevation and contained a canopy.
There is a sealed service entrance on 49 East 33rd Street, leading to a tunnel.
In 1967, the lowest three floors were redesigned with a glass and travertine facade.
Some of the original ornamentation from the lowest floors, including three medallions measuring and twenty-four pieces of relief, are preserved in a private garden at 433 East 58th Street in
Sutton Place, Manhattan.
The entrance to the apartments on the upper floors is directly on Park Avenue and carries the address 4 Park Avenue. The offices on the lower floors are accessed from 33rd and 34th Streets and originally carried the address 6 Park Avenue.
Upper stories
Above the base, the building is designed with two
light courts facing Park Avenue. These divided the upper stories into three wings, arranged in an "E" shape. When the building was used as a hotel, this allowed each guest to have an exterior window.
Each wing measures three
bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
wide, while the side elevations measure five bays wide. There is a
band course of brick and stone above the 4th story, as well as balustrades in front of the light courts on that story. The 5th-story windows contain ornate terracotta frames, while the 6th- through 18th-story windows have a simpler design.
The western frontage was designed as a fireproof barrier without any windows. The light courts, combined with the narrowness of the site, required that the hotel be taller than most others in New York City at the time of its construction (with the exception of the
Belmont Hotel).
The brick and terracotta facade was preserved when the building was renovated in the 1960s.
On the top three stories, the building was ornately decorated with terracotta motifs such as
lozenges, lions' heads, helmets, and
colonnette A colonnette is a small slender column, usually decorative, which supports a beam or lintel. Colonettes have also been used to refer to a feature of furnishings such as a dressing table and case clock, and even studied by archeologists in Roman ...
s.
At the 19th story, each window has a shallow pediment, which supports a balustrade that protrudes from each of the 20th-story windows. In addition, each of the 20th-story windows is separated by a terracotta panel with a pattern. There are stone
trusses across the light courts at this level. On the top two stories, there are double-height round arches made of terracotta. The windows at the 21st story contain pediments above them.
Instead of a protruding
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
, the Vanderbilt Hotel was topped by a curved parapet that contained classical heads and lace decorations, as well as electric lights.
The hotel was one of the first buildings in New York City to illuminate its roof at night.
The parapet measured tall.
The roof was coated with
asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
as a fireproofing measure.
The terracotta at the pinnacle was made by
New York Architectural Terra Cotta
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
.
The roof has 36 sculpted terracotta heads, each measuring high and weighing . Each sculpture depicts either the grinning classical god
Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
, who had a beard, or a smiling face of unclear gender, who did not have a beard. Another 18 sculptures, along with the parapet, were removed in 1966 when four
penthouse apartments were built on the top floors.
Renovation architect Peter Claman, an unnamed art dealer, and the
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
each took some of the busts,
which ended up as far away as
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...
.
Mechanical and structural features
The mechanical equipment was placed in the hotel's subbasements. There were several
Babcock & Wilcox boilers, which were fed by automatic
stokers. Each stoker was supplied by a traveling
hopper with a capacity of about , filled by a coal
conveyor with continuously moving buckets. Additionally, there were three
direct current electric generators that were capable of generating at any one time, as well as a central oiling system and two garbage incinerators.
The steam pipes in each room were hidden by marble countertops and asbestos curtains.
The hotel had an
ice machine
An icemaker, ice generator, or ice machine may refer to either a consumer device for making ice, found inside a home freezer; a stand-alone appliance for making ice, or an industrial machine for making ice on a large scale. The term "ice machin ...
, which had a capacity of , for the refrigeration and cooling systems.
The iced water was then pumped to pantries on seven stories.
There was also a machine capable of filtering , which cleaned the air for the Della Robbia Room in the basement.
The original boilers were removed in the 1960s.
There were six elevators in total,
each with crimson tapestries and a wooden veneer.
The elevators were
hydraulically powered, with hydraulic cylinders in the basement. In the 1960s, the elevators were converted to cable-hauled cabs, but the old hydraulic cylinders were left in place.
The Vanderbilt Hotel was erected with a steel
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
, which was then reinforced with masonry. The outer walls of the building contained masonry walls that tapered in thickness from at the bottom to at the top. During the 1960s renovation, the thickness of the exterior walls was reduced by up to 4 inches. The masonry was not laid on a perfectly straight axis. In some of the intermediate stories, the masonry was misaligned by as much as , requiring the installation of custom plumbing fixtures for each of the upper-story apartments, rather than mass-produced fixtures.
The upper stories contain floor slabs made of concrete arches.
The ceilings of the original hotel measured high. During the 1960s, these were lowered by as much to to accommodate utilities in the ceiling.
In the service hallways, the floor slabs are of cement and the walls were wainscoted with thin iron plates. The partition walls are made of gypsum.
Interior
Lobby
Like the lower part of the facade, the lobby was designed in the Adam style.
The lobby was treated as a single, large open space with a vaulted ceiling.
This decision was informed by the fact that the Vanderbilt Hotel was actually intended as an
apartment hotel for long-term residents. Thus, the building did not contain a large ballroom or other spaces that characterized transient hotels.
The restaurant and palm garden were separated from the rest of the lobby by screens and plants. At the 34th Street end, the men's bar and writing room were enclosed with partitions. The women's writing room was housed within a long alcove off the lobby. The space also contained black furniture.
Next to the lobby, there was a cashier's office with a bronze screen designed by
Louis Comfort Tiffany.
This room had a Numidian-marble floor.
A children's playroom was added to the lobby in 1913.
A "Far East Room" was created in the lobby after World War I in advance of a dinner in which
Ferdinand Foch was a guest; it remained in operation through the late 1950s.
The first-floor lobby was clad in imitation Caen stone,
which was actually made of plaster.
The main lobby had a
vaulted ceiling supported by square piers.
These piers curved directly onto the ceiling and were clad with sandstone.
Crystal chandeliers, each with 24 lamps, were suspended directly from the ceiling.
In the lobby was a
frieze created by Beatrice Astor Chanler in
relief.
The frieze was a dull gold color, while the reliefs were designed in the style of Italian ceramic artist
Luca della Robbia.
The rugs were designed specifically for the hotel. Two such rugs were ordered for the lobby entrance, each measuring .
Each rug was decorated with Chinese motifs and was colored a "royal Chinese blue", with central medallions.
The piers on the walls contained shelves with blue vases, within which were placed lighting fixtures.
During the 1960s renovation, Intramural Associates redesigned a part of the old hotel lobby,
which was preserved as the building's residential entrance.
The lobby was redesigned with a color palette of red, white, and blue, and the lobby walls were wainscoted in cherry wood.
Barbara Comfort designed a tapestry for the lobby, which was unveiled in 1967. The tapestry depicts a scene from the
American Revolutionary War in which Mary Lindley Murray, an 18th-century resident of the site, distracted British troops during the
Landing at Kip's Bay, giving American troops time to escape.
Della Robbia Room
The basement originally contained a double-height grill room with a vaulted ceiling and elevated gallery.
[ ] It was known as the Della Robbia Room, after Luca Della Robbia,
and could fit a thousand guests.
The bar at the southern section of the restaurant was originally nicknamed the "Crypt".
There was a kitchen below the bar, as well as a laundry room at the north end of the grill room.
The spaces were split across multiple levels, each only slightly above the other. A door from Park Avenue led to a central corridor directly above the kitchen, where a staircase led down to the main grill room. The bar was three steps below the corridor to the south, while the gallery was three steps above the corridor to the north. A staircase also led from the grill room to the lobby, and the bar also had its own door from 33rd Street.
The restaurant was extensively decorated with ceramic
Guastavino tiles manufactured by the
Rookwood Pottery Company;
these tiles depicted motifs such as flowers and faces.
Most of the grill room was replaced with a
parking garage
A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...
in 1967,
but the Crypt and a portion of the grill room remain in their original condition.
The remaining section is less than one-fifth the size of the original grill room.
The extant portion of the Della Robbia Room is designated as a
New York City interior landmark, one of a few restaurants in the city with such a designation,
and has contained
Wolfgang's Steakhouse
Wolfgang's Steakhouse is an American steakhouse chain whose flagship restaurant is located on Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. The restaurant is owned by a former headwaiter at Peter Luger Steak House, Wolfgang Zwiener. Wolfgang's has be ...
since 2004.
Along with the Rathskeller at the
Seelbach Hotel
The Seelbach Hilton is a historic hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, founded by Bavarian-born immigrant brothers Louis and Otto Seelbach. It opened in 1905 as the ''Seelbach Hotel'', envisioned by the Seelbach Brothers to embody the old-world grande ...
in
Louisville, Kentucky, the Della Robbia Room contains one of the few extant examples of Rookwood tiles in the world.
The space is also one of the few interiors in New York City with Guastavino tiles.
Placed along the Della Robbia Room's length were double-height square piers, which divided the room into bays.
The room was generally decorated in a cream and blue color scheme.
The piers were covered in tiles, decorated with tropical birds, fish, flowers, and foliage "in a slightly humorous vein";
they contained
fretwork at their corners and
capitals
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
.
The gallery was placed behind the piers and had an Adam-style balustrade.
This gallery was used by the grill room's workers.
At the top of the room was a golden cornice.
The two southernmost bays of the gallery remain largely intact and are used as the rear of the modern restaurant space.
A wooden platform has been placed above the original floor. These remaining bays are accessed by a staircase that leads from the bar area.
The main floor of the restaurant, now the parking garage, has been stripped of most decoration except for some small patches of marble.
The former Crypt, now the main dining room,
consists of nine bays in a three-by-three grid. The ceiling is supported by freestanding square piers in the center of the space, with wooden
wainscoting. The walls contain
engaged
An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be '' ...
pilasters and formerly included lighting
sconces. The bar room has a freestanding counter on the eastern wall, and several doorways on the walls have been modified or removed. The bar's original floor was made of marble, but this has since been covered by multiple types of materials, including carpets and hexagonal ceramic tiles.
The vaulted ceilings of the room and bar were made of Guastavino tiles in a blue, tan, and aqua color scheme.
The ceiling of the bar is about tall, lower than that of the grill room.
The vaults of the bar's ceiling are separated by arches with blue terracotta bands on their
soffits. The underside of each arch has ivory-colored flower motifs, some of which have grotesque heads placed atop them. From outside to inside, the vaults are surrounded by ivory-colored moldings; a blue tile band; a frieze with red, yellow, and green tiles and ivory-colored
rosettes; and an aqua tile band. Each of the ceiling vaults is made of textured tiles with a
meander motif.
The tiles are laid in a
herringbone pattern.
The ceiling of the northwestern bay is divided into two sections; the southern half retains its original vault while the northern half is a flat black ceiling. Brass and glass lamps are suspended from the ceiling. The gallery's ceiling was designed similarly, but the vaults were shallower.
The main grill room's ceiling also contained cut glass chandeliers.
Other stories
Originally, the Vanderbilt Hotel had 585
or 600 rooms.
The total included 457 bedrooms and 57
parlors.
The rooms could be rearranged into suites with several bedrooms leading off a parlor.
The units in the hotel's southern wing were designed as long-term residential apartments and had their own bank of elevators. The other wings were used as short-term transient accommodations and were served by a central bank of elevators.
The top two stories contained a private apartment for A. G. Vanderbilt's family
and had nine rooms, served by their own elevator.
There were also several dressing rooms on the mezzanine level for guests who wanted to attend a formal function, such as a dinner, without actually using a room at the hotel.
The third floor contained servants' suites, as well as pipes and electrical ducts.
When the hotel opened, its general manager said the hotel's design sought to "eliminate the red and gold idea in hotel decoration".
The rooms were mostly decorated in stone; the tops of each wall were decorated with stone friezes.
There were metal sockets embedded in the concrete floor slabs, to which the hotel's custom-made rugs were attached.
The walls were paneled,
and the
baseboard
In architecture, a baseboard (also called skirting board, skirting, wainscoting, mopboard, trim, floor molding, or base molding) is usually wooden or vinyl board covering the lowest part of an interior wall. Its purpose is to cover the joint b ...
s were made of marble.
On the upper floors, each room was designed in an Adam or Georgian style; each floor was designed differently.
''American Architect'' magazine said the hotel had an "Oriental flavor and a Renaissance grace to be seen everywhere", with furnishings inspired by
Chinese architecture.
Each guest room's salon had a
reproduction
Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual or ...
of a classical
oil painting.
The decorative patterns extended to small details, such as
cameo heads on the cast-iron balustrades of the staircases.
The rooms also had
Wedgwood doorknobs, which guests stole repeatedly.
The hotel also included other features for guest comfort. Each unit had its own bathroom with hot and cold taps.
An electric bell in each room allowed patrons to call for room service without leaving their rooms.
These bells were themselves placed within iron boxes to prevent the sound from disturbing other guests.
There were telephones on the desk of each room, as well as pneumatic tubes connecting each room with the hotel's main office.
As a fireproofing measure, the rooms did not contain wood decorations,
except for small wooden shelves in the rooms.
The building also contained hollow metal doors, trim, and window frames.
After 1967, the hotel was converted into 364 apartments on the upper stories, ranging from
studios to three-bedroom units.
Three of the apartments, each with two to three bedrooms, were fully furnished units for residents' overnight guests.
Six office floors were created below the apartments, and there were also storefronts and a garage.
The office floors measure and consist of three of the basement levels, as well as the first through third stories above ground.
The parking garage, accessed from 33rd Street, spans four levels and can fit 150 cars.
History
By the first decade of the 20th century, the upscale residences along Fourth and Park Avenues were being replaced with commercial structures.
The area bounded by
Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...
, 34th Street,
Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street. Along it ...
, and 38th Street, including both sides of Park Avenue within that region, was excluded from such development.
This was because of the Murray Hill Restrictive Agreement, which was enacted in 1847 and restricted the development of non-residential buildings in that area.
The restriction extended south of 34th Street, including the future Vanderbilt Hotel site.
Development
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt acquired additional land next to his family's old estate in 1907.
That November, Vanderbilt leased part of the estate to the City Leasing Company, which planned to erect a building on the site.
Later that month, Warren and Wetmore filed plans for a 21-story office and loft building, to be built on the west side of Park Avenue between 33rd and 34th Streets.
The building would have cost $1 million.
There would have been stores on the ground floor, manufacturing lofts on the next four stories, and offices above. The first six stories would have had a brick and limestone facade; the remaining floors would have been made of brick and terracotta.
The building would have had a metal roof high.
At the time, the site was diagonally across from a trolley depot. ''The New York Times'' said: "Mr. Vanderbilt would not do this unless he had definite knowledge as to the future of the Fourth Avenue car barn block."
In December 1908, Vanderbilt filed plans for a 19-story hotel on the site.
Existing tenants were asked to leave the site by June 1909.
Part of the hotel was to be within the Murray Hill restricted zone. However, the neighborhood's residents did not file any lawsuit against his plans in the year after he filed them.
The law firm of
Carter Ledyard & Milburn
Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP is a New York City law firm.
The firm was founded in 1854 by Henry Scudder and James C. Carter.
Former partners
* Grenville Clark, a member of the Harvard Corporation, co-author of the book ''World Peace Through W ...
(who represented financier
J. P. Morgan Jr.
John Pierpont Morgan Jr. (September 7, 1867 – March 13, 1943) was an American banker, finance executive, and philanthropist. He inherited the family fortune and took over the business interests including J.P. Morgan & Co. after his father J. P ...
, a supporter of the restricted zone) told Vanderbilt that it might file an
injunction
An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
against him if the hotel plans proceeded,
but Vanderbilt proceeded anyway. By August 1909, the buildings on the site were being cleared.
''The New York Times'' said the Vanderbilt Hotel, along with the Cameron Building at Madison Avenue and 34th Street, was evidence of the "weakening" of the Murray Hill restricted zone.
The
United Hotels Company of America, which was formed in 1910, agreed to operate the Vanderbilt Hotel as one of its first properties.
The William L. Crow Company started constructing the hotel in March 1910.
That July, Warren and Wetmore filed plans for a two-story structure at 45–47 East 33rd Street, directly to the west, to protect westward views from the hotel. That building was used as a ventilation shaft for the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
's
East River Tunnels.
The bricklayers' unions went on
strike in September 1910, temporarily halting all work on the hotel. Work was again paused in September 1911, when all laborers went on strike in support of the marble polishers' union, which had gone on strike for several weeks. At the time, the marble was being installed in the hotel.
Most laborers returned to work shortly afterward,
but the marble laborers continued striking until the end of the year.
By the end of 1911, the hotel was ready to receive guests.
The hotel cost $4 million,
of which $700,000 was spent on furnishings alone.
Hotel use
1910s and 1920s
The hotel opened to guests on January 10, 1912, under general manager Thomas M. Hilliard and assistant manager Walton H. Marshall.
At the time, the furnishings were incomplete. Three days after the hotel opened, the third floor was damaged in a fire, though the hotel's fireproof construction limited the extent of the damage.
The Vanderbilt Hotel originally contained New York City's first women-only bar; barely any women used the bar, so it was converted to a men's bar two weeks after the hotel opened.
All work at the hotel was completed by March 1913,
and a children's playroom opened on the hotel's first floor that October.
A. G. Vanderbilt lived at his penthouse apartment for only three years, dying during the sinking of the in 1915.
The
Women's City Club of New York
Women Creating Change (formerly Women's City Club) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1915 by suffragettes in New York City. WCC is still active in the New York community.
History
WCC was started in 1915 and in September of that year, the ...
leased Vanderbilt's apartment as a clubhouse early the next year,
but it only occupied the apartment until 1918. The Vanderbilt penthouse was occupied in the 1920s by figures such as tenor
Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) ...
and politician
William Gibbs McAdoo.
The Vanderbilt soon became a popular meeting place for companies in the textile and women's apparel industries.
In its early years, the hotel hosted events such as luncheons, meetings for the private Paul Jones Club, and a party for
Warren G. Harding's
1920 presidential campaign.
The hotel was frequented by guests such as businessman
Diamond Jim Brady, actor
Rudolph Valentino
Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...
,
ballroom dancer
Irene Castle and actresses
Maude Adams,
Dorothy Gish, and
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...
.
Even after Caruso's death in 1921, the hotel continued to serve his favorite casserole for decades.
The hotel was the subject of the United States' first
skywriting advertisement in 1922, when
Royal Air Force captain Cyril Turner spelled out "Hello USA", followed by "Call Vanderbilt 7200" (the hotel's phone number), over
Times Square. The hotel received 47,000 phone calls in the three hours following the stunt.
A syndicate led by
Edmund L. Baylies
Edmund Lincoln Baylies, Jr. (December 2, 1857 – April 29, 1932) was a New York City lawyer, philanthropist, and member of New York Society during the Gilded Age.
Early life
Baylies was born in New York on December 2, 1857. He was the eldest ...
,
William A. Chanler, the general manager Walton H. Marshall, and the hotel's architect Charles D. Wetmore bought the hotel in October 1925.
The hotel continued to host events and meetings by groups like the
New York Newspaper Woman's Club The Newswomen's Club of New York is a nonprofit organization that focuses on women working in the media in the New York City metropolitan area. Founded in 1922 as the New York Newspaper Woman's Club, it included Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Rogers Reid ...
, the
National Council of Women of the United States, and the
United States Lawn Tennis Association. ''
Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...
'' magazine described the hotel's Della Robbia Restaurant in 1929 as having "never lost its popularity".
1930s to 1960s
The Park Avenue Club opened a clubhouse within the top three stories of the hotel in 1933.
In March 1935, the
New York Life Insurance Company moved to foreclose on the hotel's second mortgage loan of $200,000.
Marshall, who had directed the hotel from its opening, remained in his position as its general manager.
New York Life acquired the hotel that May at a foreclosure auction in which it bid $2.419 million.
By November 1935, the
Knott Management Corporation Knott or The Knott may refer to:
* Knott, Caldbeck, a mountain in the northern part of the English Lake District
* The Knott, a mountain in the eastern part of the English Lake District
* Knott, Skye, a location in Highland, Scotland
* Knott, Texa ...
had taken over the Vanderbilt's operation for New York Life. Knott then appointed Oscar Banse as the hotel's new general manager.
During the late 1930s, the hotel hosted exhibitions such as the Pottery and Glassware Show. A guide in 1939 described the Vanderbilt as "one of the hotels in New York that has kept its popularity for many years".
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 ...
bought the Vanderbilt Hotel from New York Life in February 1941,
though the hotel's management was retained.
Plans for minor alterations to the hotel building were filed in 1948.
The next year, the Vanderbilt's general manager Thomas J. Kelly II announced that air-conditioning would be installed in 100 of the suites.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the hotel hosted events like an exhibit of furniture, a showcase of a rare Bible, and a stamp-issuance ceremony. The hotel was known as the Manger Vanderbilt by the mid-1950s.
The Della Robbia Restaurant continued to operate within the Manger Vanderbilt, and the hotel also had other eateries such as the Purple Tree.
The architectural firm of Finn and Jenter filed plans in 1956 for the installation of a central air conditioning system at the hotel, which was to cost $500,000.
By the 1960s, patronage at the Vanderbilt had dropped significantly from its heyday, and there was also rising demand for office space in Manhattan.
The ''
New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' announced in December 1965 that the Vanderbilt Hotel would close to make way for an office building.
Manger closed the Vanderbilt on January 1, 1966.
The Vanderbilt was one of several hotels in New York City to close that year, removing a combined 5,489 rooms from the market.
Office and apartment use
Conversion and early tenants
A group led by John Marqusee bought the Vanderbilt from Manger Hotels in April 1966 for $3.625 million.
The lowest three stories and the basements were converted to offices, while the upper 18 stories would be modified into residences.
Setrick Construction Corporation was hired as the main contractor.
The project also involved architectural firm Schuman, Lichtenstein & Claman; structural engineers Jerry Belcher and Associates; and mechanical engineers Larry Mayer and Associates.
Marqusee chose to convert the existing building rather than replace it because, under
zoning laws, a new building would have been restricted to a smaller floor area.
The project was one of several mixed-use buildings being developed in Manhattan at the time. Marqusee planned to market the apartments to office workers who lived in the suburbs and needed to stay in the city during weekdays.
To make way for penthouses atop the building, the contractors removed the statues on the roof in June 1966.
During the renovation, workers also discovered a room with women's clothes and shoes, which had been sealed off with brick and was not in the building's blueprints.
Even after the Vanderbilt's conversion had been completed in 1967, people sometimes visited the building in the belief that the hotel and its restaurants were still operational.
M. H. Lanston leased one of the storefronts, using a portion of the Della Robbia Room as a storeroom,
while Lerner Parking leased another portion of the restaurant space as a parking garage.
Other early commercial tenants included
Childs Restaurants
Childs Restaurants was one of the first national dining chains in the United States and Canada, having peaked in the 1920s and 1930s with about 125 locations in dozens of markets, serving over 50,000,000 meals a year, with over $37 million in as ...
, a branch office of stock brokerage
EF Hutton, and
United Cerebral Palsy.
1980s to present
By the 1980s, Louis Feil of
The Feil Organization
The Feil Organization is a family-owned real estate investment, development, and management company in New York City governed by a nine-member board, with a portfolio of $7 billion as of 2013.
The Feil Organization is one of New York City's oldes ...
owned the building.
The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) conducted studies in 1984 to determine whether the former Vanderbilt Hotel was eligible for city-landmark status. The LPC found that, because the lower section of the facade had been substantially altered, the exterior did not hold as much architectural significance as the remaining parts of the interior.
In 1987, Italian restaurant Fiori opened within the former Della Robbia Room. After the demolition of the
Art Deco-style Marine Grill at nearby
Herald Square in 1991, preservation group Friends of Terra Cotta started advocating for the remaining section of the room, the onetime Crypt, to be designated as an interior city landmark. The group started a petition and collected 500 signatures in support of this designation.
The Crypt was designated as a New York City interior landmark in 1994.
By 1999, the Crypt was occupied by a restaurant called J. T.'s American-Italian Grill, operated by National Integrated Food Services. In 2002, Israel Berger & Associates restored the terracotta on the facade for $700,000. Afterward, architectural historian Mosette Broderick said the ground-floor alteration was old enough to be designated as a landmark, but Broderick did not believe that the modified facade still carried historical significance.
The Crypt became the Vanderbilt Station restaurant in 2002. Two years later, Wolfgang's Steakhouse opened within the space.
During the 2010s, 4 Park Avenue contained the offices of property manager Charles H. Greenthal & Co.,
as well as a
Crunch gym.
The building underwent a capital renovation in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
In 2021, the
State University of New York
The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...
's
Empire State College leased the mezzanine and second floor; the Feil Organization still owned 4 Park Avenue.
At the time, the building's other commercial tenants included ground-level stores for
Duane Reade and Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, as well as two companies within the basements.
Impact
When the hotel opened, one writer said: "The Hotel Vanderbilt
..shows so liberal an appreciation of the modern spirit applied to hotel needs. It shows also an understanding of up-to-date construction and of refinement of decoration."
Another magazine called the hotel "one of the most distinctive and imposing buildings in New York, and its position is commanding", as it was close to Grand Central.
A contemporary observer said the Della Robbia Room was "an example of the most successful work of this kind that has been accomplished by American potters".
Christopher Gray of ''The New York Times'' described the Della Robbia Room as a "vast double-height grotto of ceramic art", comparing the columns to trees and the ceiling to a forest canopy.
Following the building's 1960s renovation, Richard Peck of the ''Times'' wrote that the hotel had been "stripped of much of its former effulgence". According to architect
Norval White, "the ravages to the ground floor have taken it off the preservation list".
The Vanderbilt Hotel has been shown in some works of media. As the building was being constructed in 1910,
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...
took a picture entitled ''Old and New New York'', contrasting the growing steel frame of the emerging Vanderbilt Hotel with the old low-rise blocks of the street below. The hotel was also used as a filming location for ''
So Young, So Bad
''So Young, So Bad'' is a 1950 American drama film.ot to be confused with Rosita Moreno, a Spanish actress who was 43 years old at the time. Production
Vorhaus received his idea after he read a newspaper article about abuses at a women's reformat ...
'' in 1950.
See also
*
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Condominium website
{{portal bar, Architecture, Hotels, New York City
1912 establishments in New York City
Defunct hotels in Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Murray Hill, Manhattan
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
New York City interior landmarks
Office buildings completed in 1912
Office buildings in Manhattan
Park Avenue
Manger hotels