The Garden City Hotel is a hotel in

Garden City, New York Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...

. The first incarnation was built in 1874 by

A.T. Stewart Alexander Turney Stewart (October 12, 1803 – April 10, 1876) was an American entrepreneur who moved to New York and made his multimillion-dollar fortune in the most extensive and lucrative dry goods store in the world. Stewart was born in L ...

and the current fourth incarnation was built in 1983 by the late Myron Nelkin. It is famous for having hosted many world leaders and celebrities, including John F. Kennedy,

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

, George H. W. Bush, Prince Khalid of Saudi Arabia, and Irish

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...

Garret FitzGerald Garret Desmond FitzGerald (9 February 192619 May 2011) was an Irish Fine Gael politician, economist and barrister who served twice as Taoiseach, serving from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987. He served as Leader of Fine Gael from 1977 to 1987, and ...

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

, rented a room at the hotel the night before his famous transatlantic flight to Paris, although he did not actually use it, instead taking a three-hour nap at the home of his friend on 105 Third Street. It has been said that the asking price for the historic hotel is upwards of around 91

million One million (1,000,000), or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian ''millione'' (''milione'' in modern Italian), from ''mille'', "thousand", plus the a ...

dollars american

History

The original Garden City Hotel first started construction in the fall of 1873 and was opened to great fanfare on July 30, 1874. It was built by millionaire

Alexander Turney Stewart Alexander Turney Stewart (October 12, 1803 – April 10, 1876) was an American entrepreneur who moved to New York and made his multimillion-dollar fortune in the most extensive and lucrative dry goods store in the world. Stewart was born in ...

and cost $150,000 to build. The original hotel was later redesigned and expanded. A new Garden City Hotel was opened in 1895, designed by architects

McKim, Mead and 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), ...

. A nine-hole golf course was opened for guests in May 1897, which later became the

Garden City Golf Club The Garden City Golf Club is a private golf course in Garden City, New York. The club was founded in 1899, and is also known as the "Garden City Men's Club" or simply the "Men's Club" to distinguish it from the Garden City Country Club, and Cher ...

. Four years after the opening of the new hotel, it burned down on the morning of September 7, 1899. A third and most famous incarnation of the hotel was opened on the same site in 1901, and was a host to the elite families of society such as the

Vanderbilts The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthr ...

and Pierpont Morgans. It continued to be so until it declared bankruptcy and was demolished in the 1973 to make way for the present Garden City Hotel, which opened on May 20, 1983. It was reported in October 2007 that the Nelkin family was exploring the sale of the hotel several months after the death of its owner, Myron Nelkin. The hotel was sold in September 2012 to Morris Moinian of The Fortuna Realty Group. The property underwent a $30 million renovation which included 269 guest rooms and suites, a new facade and a 7,000 square foot spa, which is under construction. The Garden City Hotel is a member of the

Preferred Hotel Group Preferred Hotels & Resorts is a hotel chain, representing more than 650 independent hotels, resorts, and residences, across 85 countries. The company's corporate headquarters is situated in Newport Beach, California. It does not own, operate, ...

(Preferred Hotels and Resorts Worldwide).

References

External links

Garden City Hotel (Official Website)

Architectural sketches of the second Garden City Hotel
{{coord, 40, 43, 28, N, 73, 38, 26, W, display=title Garden City Hotel Hotels in New York (state) History of New York (state)