Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 231: Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Co

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me But… No. 231: Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Colorado

Stanley Turkel | May 19, 2020

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Hotel History: Brown Palace Hotel, (479 rooms)

The Brown Palace Hotel opened in 1892 with an eight-story atrium designed by architect Frank E. Edbrooke (1840-1921). More than 400 wrought iron grillwork panels ring the lobby from the third through the seventh floors. Two of them are upside down, one to serve the tradition that man is imperfect; the other sneaked in by a disgruntled workman.

The Brown Palace was built on a cow pasture by Henry Cordes Brown, a carpenter who had driven an oxcart across the country and arrived at Cherry Creek in Kansas territory in 1860. By the late 1880s, Brown owned much of the former miner’s encampment that became Denver. He built homes, stores and churches on most of it and gave a parcel to the state for a site for the State Capitol. The Windsor Hotel, one of Denver’s most prestigious hotels, offended Brown by refusing to admit him because he was wearing cowboy clothing. Brown decided to build a hotel that would put the Windsor to shame while allowing cowboy attire. Construction of the Brown Palace Hotel began in 1888 on the Italian Renaissance building using red Colorado granite and Arizona sandstone for the building’s exterior. Because no wood was used for the floors and walls, the hotel was celebrated as the second fireproof building in America.

Architect Frank E. Edbrooke, a Civil War veteran, was termed the “dean” of Denver architecture and several of his surviving works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Artist James Whitehouse was commissioned to create 26 medallions carved in stone, each depicting a native Colorado animal. These “silent guests” can still be seen between the seventh floor windows on the hotel’s exterior.

For the interior, Edbrooke designed an atrium lobby with the balconies rising eight floors above ground surrounded by cast iron railings with ornate grillwork panels. The completed hotel cost $1.6 million and another $400,000 for furnishings- a remarkable sum for the time. It included Axministers, Wiltons and Brussels carpets; Irish Point, Clury and Brussels net curtains; Irish linen; Haviland, Limoges and Dalton china; Reed and Barton silver. All the furniture was solid wood in white mahogany, antique oak and cherry. Chairs and sofas were covered in silk. Each guestroom had its own fireplace with kindling and coal provided by bellboys.

At opening the hotel was known as the H.C. Brown Palace. Henry Brown died in San Diego, California in 1906 at the age of 86. His body was returned to Denver where permission was given by the governor for it to lie in state in the capital building, built on the land with which he’d clinched the proposition for Denver’s becoming the Territorial Capitol.

On May 24, 1911, a scandalous double murder took place at the Brown Palace which is reported in the book by Dick Kreck Murder at the Brown Palace: A True Story of Seduction and Betrayal. The story involves high society, adultery, drugs and multiple murders.

Beginning in 1905, every president since Theodore Roosevelt has visited the hotel except Calvin Coolidge. President Dwight Eisenhower was such a frequent guest that the hotel was called the western White House.

Every year since 1945, the hotel lobby is the site of the Stock Show championship when a fifteen hundred to two thousand-pound steer is on exhibit. In its storied history, the hotel has hosted Buffalo Bill Cody, John Philip Sousa, several Barrymores, Lillian Russell, Mary Pickford and the Beatles. Almost every Denver resident has a story of a birthday, anniversary, wedding or other affair held at the Brown Palace. The tradition of “taking tea” is a long-standing one, guests have been doing it for over a century. Afternoon tea is still served daily in the middle of the atrium lobby, accompanied by either a pianist or harpist. Specially commissioned Royal Doulton bone china graces each table along with engraved silver tea pots. No detail is overlooked, not even the silver tea strainers. Afternoon tea includes scones, pastries and delicate tea sandwiches prepared fresh every day. Devonshire cream is shipped directly from England. Guests can choose between the traditional Brown’s tea or the Royal Palace tea. Uniformed wait staff are trained in the art of English tea service, a rare accomplishment in mid-America.

By 1974, the concept of luxury had changed. An average of sixty percent of Brown Palace guests were attending conventions. They were accommodated by construction in 1959 of the 22-story tower building across the street that doubled the size of the hotel from 226 rooms to 479 rooms. By the mid-1990s, Denver opened a new $4.9 billion international airport and rejuvenated its downtown with new stores, new restaurants, new cultural attractions and a new ball park.

While the Windsor Hotel was demolished in the 1950s, the Brown Palace has never once closed its doors since opening 128 years ago. It remains, a magnificent four-star hotel in the heart of one of America’s supreme mountain ranges. The Brown Palace is known for many special qualities: its unusual shape, stunning eight-story atrium lobby, elegant atmosphere and its singular ability to treat guests like royalty. In the Palace Arms restaurant, guests can see two golden eagles made of papier mache- parade decorations from Napolean’s march from the Arc de Triomphe to Notre Dame to crown himself emperor.

In 2013, the Brown Palace received a three-year restoration of the building’s façade by the Denver-based Building Restoration Specialties Company which replaced mortar joints, small areas of damaged stone and repaired flashings. The stone used to replace damaged areas of the façade was hand-carved, custom-made Utah sandstone. From the hand-painted wallpaper in the formal dining area and the on-site well used for drinking water to the painted glass ceiling that showers light on patrons enjoying tea in the atrium, the Brown Palace has managed to stay current without shedding its history.

In 2014, Crow Holding Capital Partners, an investment arm of the Trammell Crow family in Dallas acquired the historic Brown Palace Hotel & Spa and adjacent Comfort Inn Downtown Denver. In 2012, the hotel joined Marriott International’s Autograph Collection of luxury properties.

My New Book “Hotel Mavens Volume 3: Bob and Larry Tisch, Curt Strand, Ralph Hitz, Cesar Ritz, Raymond Orteig” has just been published.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)
Great American Hotel Architects Volume I (2019)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.115

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Stanley Turkel was designated as the 2014 and the 2015 Historian of the Year by Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This award is presented to an individual for making a unique contribution in the research and presentation of hotel history and whose work has encouraged a wide discussion and a greater understanding and enthusiasm for American History.

Turkel is the most widely-published hotel consultant in the United States. He operates his hotel consulting practice serving as an expert witness in hotel-related cases, provides asset management and hotel franchising consultation. He is certified as a Master Hotel Supplier Emeritus by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

Website: (www.stanleyturkel.com)

stanturkel@aol.com/917-628-8549

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Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 230: Hotel History: Four Seasons Hotel

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 230: Hotel History: Four Seasons Hotel

Stanley Turkel | April 28, 2020

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Hotel History: Four Seasons Hotel, (367 rooms)

Is it possible to conceive that the Four Seasons Hotel in New York has been converted to house medical professionals battling the coronavirus? In late March, the five-star Four Seasons Hotel located on East 57^th Street began to accept hospital employees who work in mid-Manhattan.

This I.M. Pei-designed hotel was surely the most talked-about new hotel in New York when it opened in 1993 at a cost $1 million per room. This 52-story, 367 room building with its limestone-clad lobby, 33-foot-high onyx ceiling, glowing wall sconces and original paintings provided grandeur and elegance that was immediately observed.

On June 27, 1993, in a New York Times Architecture View, Paul Goldberger wrote:

“…. The guest rooms share the qualities of the public rooms but are done in a lusher, softer modern style. They represent a big change for the Four Seasons chain, which has tended to believe that the elegance of a hotel room is in direct proportion to the amount of imitation English furniture it contains. Here, there is an urbane modernism, sophisticated without being at all cold….

And that gets us to the essential fact of this building, which is how wonderfully it combines the aura of a major hotel with the intimacy of a small one. This hotel’s architecture sends us every cue that it is a grand hotel, from the immense scale of the main entrance to the tall tower’s sculpted presence on the skyline. There is no cozy domesticity at the Four Seasons, no coy attempt, as at so many luxury hotels, to pretend that this is just a fancy apartment house that happens to have a check-in desk. No, this is a Major Public Place…. And in an age when almost every new luxury hotel seems to be parading domesticity, a hotel that presents itself as a shimmering and urbane presence is a great thing to happens to New York.”

“This is not a hotel anymore,” said Dr. Robert Quigley, the senior vice president and medical director for International SOS, a medical and travel securities firm that is overseeing the hotel’s new protocols. “It’s housing for a high-risk population.”

The Four Seasons, just like nearby Central Park and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens is yet another city landmark being retrofitted to fight the pandemic. Although other hotels in the city are helping with hospital bed overflow, the Four Seasons has dedicated itself exclusively to keeping doctors, nurses and other medical professionals well rested and safe.

At the entrance on 57^th Street, two nurses, wearing N95 masks, take the temperature of all guests, asking questions about symptoms over the past 72-hours and if they’ve washed their hands. Once inside, guests go straight to their rooms; there is no bar or restaurant. Elevators carry one passenger at a time; others must wait on taped Xs on the floor, placed six feet apart. Of the hotel’s 368 rooms, only 225 will have guests, to limit crowding on the property.

Guest and hotel staff members no longer interact. For check-in, keys are placed in envelopes on a table. Minibars have been removed from guest rooms. Housekeeping is an amenity of the past; rooms are provided with extra linens and towels. Dirty items are collected only after guests, who stay for a minimum of seven days, check out their rooms have been fumigated. Beds no longer have decorative pillows which can spread germs. On every nightstand there is a bottle of sanitizer instead of a piece of chocolate.

The idea to convert the Four Seasons was owner Ty Warner’s idea. In a few days, General Manager Rudy Tauscher helped a new team plan the emergency residence in a few days with reinvented planning and operations. Elizabeth Ortiz, the hotel’s personnel director, started daily call arounds to ensure that every employee is getting to work Ok and is feeling Ok. But despite the careful planning, the hotel was unprepared for what happened after Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mr. Warner announced that the Four Seasons would reopen for medical professionals. Thousands of doctors and nurses swarmed the phone lines. “It totally overwhelmed the ordinary systems in place” said Grey Scandaglia, Mr. Warner’s lawyer. After the initial confusion, the hotel is now working with New York hospitals and medical associations including the New York State Nurses Association, which are handling reservation requests internally.

Dr. Quigley suggested that other vacant properties could follow the Four Seasons model soon. “I’ve gotten multiple calls from multiple hotels around this country and the world to replicate what we did,” he said. “Now we have a benchmark.”

My New Book “Hotel Mavens Volume 3: Bob and Larry Tisch, Curt Strand, Ralph Hitz, Cesar Ritz, Raymond Orteig” has just been published.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)
Great American Hotel Architects Volume I (2019)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.107

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Contact: Stanley Turkel

stanturkel@aol.com/917-628-8549

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Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 229: Hotel History: Admiral Fell Inn

Posted on April 11, 2020 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 229: Hotel History: Admiral Fell Inn

Stanley Turkel | April 07, 2020

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Hotel History: Admiral Fell Inn (80 rooms)

Fell’s Point was founded in the early 1700s when the Fell Brothers arrived from Lancaster, England. Edward was a shopkeeper and his brother William was a shipbuilder. The old street names in Fell’s Point are unchanged: Fell, Thames, Bond, Bank, Caroline, Fleet, Aliceanna, Wolfe, Lancaster, Shakespeare. They are still paved mostly with Belgian stone blocks and their narrow paths are edged by brick sidewalls.

The Admiral Fell Inn is four stories high, and therefore the only building in the Point that qualifies as a skyscraper. The Inn is a group of eight different buildings which date from the late 1700s. Before becoming an inn, the site was a ship chandlery, a vinegar factory, a YMCA, a boardinghouse for actors and a sailor’s lodging house. The eighty guestrooms each have their own unique decor with wonderful views, many overlooking Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Some have canopy beds with balconies and Jacuzzi tubs.

The streets of Fell’s Point contain hundreds of buildings built before the war of 1812 and many others before the Civil War. It was the first district in Maryland to be included on the National Register of Historic Places. Most of the homes are narrow brick row houses two and a half stories tall. The gabled roofs are of slate and the narrow passageways between houses are called sallyports, allowing access from the street to the rear of the houses. Many tourists tour the famous Inner Harbor and then walk a few blocks to historic Fell’s Point where they find a real neighborhood, restaurants, patisseries, bars and galleries.

Nearby attractions

Antique Row – 10 blocks west
Aquarium – 10 blocks west
B & O Railroad – 1 ½ miles west
Babe Ruth House – 10 blocks
Baltimore Museum of Art – 6 miles
Baltimore Zoo – 3 ½ miles west
Oriole Park at Camden Yards – 12 blocks
Center Stage- 14 blocks
Christopher Columbus Building – 8 blocks
Convention Center – 10 blocks west
Edgar Allen Poe House – 1 ½ miles
Fort McHenry – 2 ½ miles
The Gallery – 9 blocks west
Inner Harbor – 10 blocks
Little Italy – 4 blocks
Lyric Opera House – 3 ½ miles northwest
Maryland Historical Society – 1 mile
Morris Mechanic Theater – 1 mile
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall – 3 ½ miles north
Peabody Conservatory – 1 ½ miles
Science Center – 10 blocks west
Walter’s Art Gallery – 1 ½ miles
World Trade Center – 8 blocks

Frommer’s Review describes the Inn as follows:

Updated and expanded over the years, this charming inn sits just across Thames Street from the harbor in the heart of the Fell’s Point Historic District. It spans eight buildings, built between 1790 and 1996, and blends Victorian and Federal-style architecture. Originally a boardinghouse for sailors, later a YMCA, and then a vinegar bottling plant, the inn now features an antiques-filled lobby and library, along with individually decorated guest rooms with Federal-period furnishings.

The Inn is a charter member of the Historic Hotels of America and a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

My New Book “Hotel Mavens Volume 3: Bob and Larry Tisch, Curt Strand, Ralph Hitz, Cesar Ritz, Raymond Orteig” has just been published.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)
Great American Hotel Architects Volume I (2019)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.83

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Website: (www.stanleyturkel.com)

Contact: Stanley Turkel

stanturkel@aol.com/917-628-8549

Instagram

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Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 228: Hotel History: The Barbizon Hotel, New York

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 228: The Barbizon Hotel, New York

Stanley Turkel | March 17, 2020

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Hotel History: Barbizon Hotel, New York

The Barbizon Hotel for Women was built in 1927 as a residential hotel and clubhouse for single women who came to New York for professional opportunities. Designed by the prominent hotel architects Murgatroyd & Ogden, the 23^rd-story Barbizon Hotel is an excellent example of the 1920s apartment hotel and is notable for its design quality. The Barbizon’s design reflects the influence of architect Arthur Loomis Harmon’s enormous Shelton Hotel in New York. Harmon, who would help design the Empire State Building a few years later, made visionary use of the city’s 1916 zoning law to admit light and air to the streets below.

In the period following World War I, the number of women attending college began to approach that of men for the first time. Unlike the graduates of preceding generation, three quarters of whom had intended to become teachers, these women planned on careers in business, the social sciences or the professions. Nearly every woman student expected to find a job upon graduation in a major city.

The demand for inexpensive housing for single women led to the construction of several large residential hotels in Manhattan. Of these, the Barbizon Hotel, which was equipped with special studio, rehearsal and concert spaces to attract women pursuing careers became the most renowned. Many of its residents became prominent professional women including Sylvia Plath, who wrote about her residence at the Barbizon in the novel The Bell Jar.

The Barbizon’s first floor was equipped with a theater, stage and pipe organ with a seating capacity of 300. The upper floors of the tower contained studios for painters, sculptors, musicians and drama students. The hotel also included a gymnasium, swimming pool, coffee shop, library, lecture rooms, an auditorium, a solarium and a large roof garden on the 18^th floor.

On the Lexington Avenue side of the building, there were shops including a dry cleaner, hairdresser, pharmacy, millinery shop and bookstore. The hotel also leased meeting and exhibition space to the Arts Council of New York and meeting rooms to the Wellesley, Cornell and Mount Holyoke Women’s Clubs.

In 1923, Rider’s New York City Guide listed only three other hotels catering to businesswomen: the Martha Washington at 29 East 29^th Street, the Rutledge Hotel for Women at 161 Lexington Avenue and the Allerton House for Women at 57^th Street and Lexington Avenue.

The Barbizon Hotel advertised that it was a cultural and social center which included concerts on radio station WOR, dramatic performances by the Barbizon Players, the Irish Theater with actors from the Abbey Theater, art exhibits, and lectures by the Barbizon Book and Pen Club.

This rich cultural program, the special studio and rehearsal rooms, reasonable prices and complimentary breakfasts attracted many women pursuing careers in the arts. Notable residents included the actress Aline McDermott while she was appearing on Broadway in the Children’s Hour, Jennifer Jones, Gene Tierney, Eudora Weltz and Titanic survivor Margaret Tobin Brown, star of the Unsinkable Molly Brown who passed away during her stay at the Barbizon in 1932. During the 1940s, several other performers resided at the Barbizon including comedian Peggy Cass, musical comedy star Elaine Stritch, actress Chloris Leachman, future first lady Nancy Davis (Reagan) and actress Grace Kelly.

The Barbizon Hotel has been the location of the following popular cultural performances:

In the critically acclaimed television series Mad Men, The Barbizon is noted as the place of residence of one of Don Draper’s post-divorce love interests, Bethany Van Nuys.
In the 1967 Nick Carter spy novel The Red Guard, Carter books his teenage god-daughter into The Barbizon.
In the 2015 Marvel TV Series Agent Carter, Peggy Carter lives in the Griffith, a fictional hotel heavily inspired by The Barbizon and located on 63^rd Street & Lexington Avenue.
In Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, The Barbizon is prominently featured under the name “The Amazon”. The novel’s protagonist, Esther Greenwood, lives there during a summer internship at a fashion magazine. This event is based on Plath’s real-life internship at the magazine Mademoiselle in 1953.
In Fiona Davis’s debut novel, The Dollhouse, The Barbizon Hotel is featured in a fictitious coming-of-age story that details two generations of young women whose lives intersect.
Michael Callahan’s debut novel Searching For Grace Kelly, is set in 1955 at The Barbizon. The novel was inspired by Callahan’s 2010 article about The Barbizon in Vanity Fair, titled Sorority On E. 63^rd

By the mid 1970s, the Barbizon was beginning to show its age, was half filled and losing money. A floor-by-floor renovation was begun and in February 1981 the hotel began accepting male guests. The tower studios were converted to expensive apartments with long leases in 1982. In 1983, the hotel was acquired by KLM Airlines and its name was changed to the Golden Tulip Barbizon Hotel. In 1988, the hotel passed to a group led by Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, who planned to market it as an urban spa. In 2001, the hotel was acquired by the Barbizon Hotel Associates, an affiliate of BPG Properties, which operated it as part of its Melrose Hotel chain. In 2005, BPG converted the building into condominium apartments and renamed it the Barbizon 63. The building includes a large indoor pool which is part of the Equinox Fitness Club.

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission added the building to its roster in 2012, noting that the structure is “an excellent representative of the 1920s apartment hotel building and is notable for the high quality of its design.”

My New Book “Hotel Mavens Volume 3: Bob and Larry Tisch, Curt Strand, Ralph Hitz, Cesar Ritz, Raymond Orteig” has just been published.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)
Great American Hotel Architects Volume I (2019)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.90

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Contact: Stanley Turkel

stanturkel@aol.com/917-628-8549

Instagram

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Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 227: Hotel History: The Carlyle Hotel, New York (1929)

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 227: Hotel History: The Carlyle Hotel, New York (1929)

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Hotel History: Carlyle Hotel, New York (190 Rooms)

The Carlyle Hotel was built by Moses Ginsberg and designed in Art Deco style by architects Sylvan Bien (1893-1959) and Harry M. Prince. Bien and Prince both had previously worked at the famous architectural firm of Warren & Wetmore. Since opening in 1930, The Carlyle has become a living legend that embodies the spirit of New York: elegant, sparkling, worldly and nostalgic.

However, by the time the Carlyle was ready to open its doors, the 1929 stock market crash ended the boom times. The new hotel went into receivership in 1931 and was sold to the Lyleson Corporation in 1932. The new owners kept the original management which was able to improve occupancy and to stabilize the Carlyles’ financial situation. In 1948, New York businessman Robert Whittle Dowling purchased the Carlyle and began to transform it into the most fashionable hotel in Manhattan. It became known as the “New York White House” during President John F. Kennedy’s administration who maintained an apartment on the 34^th floor for the last ten years of his life. He occupied the apartment in a well-publicized visit for a few days before his inauguration in January 1961.

For almost nine decades, The Carlyle on the elegant upper East Side of New York City has pampered rich and famous guests from around the world with its timeless luxury, savvy discretion, attention to detail, smooth service and personalized touches. This swanky iconic hotspot, a Rosewood Hotels property, was celebrated in a cool new feature-length documentary film, Always at The Carlyle in 2018. The movie embraces more than 100 personalities, who share their colorful Carlyle stories. Among the celebrities spotlighted are George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Anthony Bourdain, Tommy Lee Jones, Roger Federer, Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Jon Hamm, Lenny Kravitz, Naomi Campbell, Herb Albert, Condoleezza Rice, Jeff Goldblum, Paul Shaffer, Vera Wang, Alexa Ray Joel, Graydon Carter, Bill Murray, Nina Garcia, Isaac Mizrahi, Buster Poindexter, Rita Wilson and Elaine Stritch. Yet some of the most gracious and insightful sound-bites are voiced by staff, many of whom have worked at The Carlyle for decades, such as the concierge Dwight Owsley. These well-trained employees personify what The Carlyle does best.

The Café Carlyle is noted for the murals by Marcel Vertès, which were cleaned in the summer of 2007 as part of a renovation and redecoration of the café. Interior designer Scott Salvator oversaw the renovation and redecoration, the first significant alterations to the café since its debut in 1955. During the renovations, the café closed for three months and was widely praised after reopening in September 2007. Salvator removed the dropped acoustical ceiling, exposing two feet of newly found space which allowed for a modern sound and a lighting system to appeal to a younger generation.

The Bemelmans Bar is decorated with murals depicting Madeline in Central Park painted by Ludwig Bemelmans. Bemelmans is the namesake of the bar, and his murals there are his only artwork on display to the public. Instead of accepting payment for his work, Bemelmans received a year and a half of accommodations at the Carlyle for himself and his family.

Both the hotel’s Café Carlyle and Bemelmans Bar are musical havens featuring outstanding performers. For decades dapper Bobby Short played piano and with his distinctive voice exemplified café society sophistication. More recently, the Café Carlyle has featured Rita Wilson, Alan Cummings, Linda Lavin, Gina Gershon, Kathleen Turner and Jeff Goldblum.

It is interesting that the Carlyle has survived in splendid isolation that has heightened its visibility in comparison with most of these other pioneering residential towers. Much of the credit for that must go to Peter Sharp, the late developer who bought the hotel and also owned the low-rise building that fills the avenue blockfront across the street. That building was for many years the headquarters of Parke-Bernet, the auction house that was subsequently acquired by Sotherby’s which relocated it to a warehouse-like building on 72^nd Street and York Avenue. After World War II, Parke- Bernet was the center of the art world and largely responsible for many art galleries moving uptown around Madison Avenue from 57^th Street. Sharp could have erected a very major new tower on the site after the auction house was moved, but he chose to not develop it and to protect the sweeping Central Park views for the Carlyle. The low-rise building now contains several important art galleries and some offices of the real estate division of Sotheby’s as well as some high-end boutiques.

The Carlyle has consistently been recognized as one of the top hotels by the world’s leading publications, travel magazines and consumer organizations:

Travel & Leisure Top 15 Hotels in New York City 2019
Condè Nast Traveler the Best Hotels and Resorts in the World: The 2019 Gold List
Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Award 2019
S. News Best USA Hotels 2019
S. New Best New York Hotels 2019
S. News Best New York City Hotels 2019
Harper’s Bazaar The 30 Best Hotels in New York City

My New Book “Hotel Mavens Volume 3: Bob and Larry Tisch, Curt Strand, Ralph Hitz, Cesar Ritz, Raymond Orteig” has just been published.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)
Great American Hotel Architects Volume I (2019)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.95

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Contact: Stanley Turkel

stanturkel@aol.com/917-628-8549

Instagram

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Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 226: Hotel History: Peninsula Hotel, New York

Posted on February 10, 2020 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 226 Hotel History: Peninsula Hotel, New York

Stanley Turkel | February 04, 2020

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Hotel History: Peninsula Hotel, New York (241 Rooms)

On February 7, 1989, the Peninsula Hotel was designated as a Landmark by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission. The original neo-Italian Renaissance Gotham Hotel is one of the few structures on Fifth Avenue which recalls the golden age of luxury hotels and the prominent place they occupied in the formation of the city. Erected in 1905, it was designed by the architectural firm of Hiss & Weekes and is among the oldest of the early “skyscraper” hotels. These hotels heralded the transformation of Fifth Avenue from an exclusive residential street – Millionaires’ Row − to a fashionable commercial thoroughfare. Rising twenty stories, including a multi-storied rooftop addition, at the southwest corner of West 55^th Street and Fifth Avenue, the boldly-rendered Gotham is a stylistic counterpoint to its contemporary, the flamboyant Beaux-Arts St. Regis Hotel directly across Fifth Avenue. It also skillfully complements McKim, Mead & White’s University Club which adjoins the Peninsula to the south.

The Architectural Record reported in November 1902:

We all know how woefully individualistic our builders have been, resulting in a mass of fragmentary, inharmonious, clashing architecture, no attempt being made to work in common for the sake of beauty and uniformity. This great projected hotel (the Gotham) of eighteen stories is designed to harmonize with the adjacent University Club, which is a fine piece of architecture. The architectural lines of the hotel will follow the lines of the University Club. The same centre line will make a continuous arcade of five openings in the club and five in the hotel. The stone balustrade will be carried out on the same lines of the present balustrade of the club. Thus the whole block will be tied together. The general scheme of architecture is also the same as that of the club, being Italian Renaissance as far as possible in an eighteen storied building.

The firm of Hiss & Weekes continued in practice for thirty-four years producing a number of buildings in the city including: the spectacular Belnord Apartments (1908-09), a massive neo-Italian Renaissance apartment house on West 86^th Street (a designated New York City Landmark); and the handsome Beaux-Arts townhouses at 6 and 8 West 65^th Street (now in the Upper East Side Historic District).

The Gotham never seemed to find the favor it sought, in part because it was overshadowed by the subsequent openings of the St. Regis Hotel across Fifth Avenue and then the Plaza Hotel four blocks to the north. The Gotham was foreclosed in 1908 after it failed to get a liquor license. As Christopher Gray reported in his Streetscapes article in the New York Times (January 3, 1999):

The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church is at the northwest corner of 55^th and Fifth and the St. Regis had just barely won permission to serve liquor − it was in technical violation of a restriction prohibiting liquor sales within 200 feet of a church. The Gotham, directly across 55^th Street from the church was unequivocally in violation of the law. Several newspaper accounts state that United States Senator Thomas C. Platt and other influential politicians were silent partners on the original Gotham team, and in 1905 and 1907 bills were introduced in the New York State Legislature exempting hotels from the provision if they had more than 200 rooms.

Neither of the bills, which were clearly fashioned for the Gotham, passed. In 1908 the Gotham went into foreclosure over a $741 butcher’s bill, and the Real Estate Record & Guide said that the failure was due solely to the liquor restriction, which it denounced as ludicrous. The hotel, which had cost $4 million to build, was sold for $2.45 million.

The hotel had various owners until it was sold in 1920 to William and Julius Manger, proprietors of the Manger chain of hotels including the Martha Washington Hotel for Women. Subsequently, the Kirkeby Hotel Group purchased the property in 1944. Other owners were Mrs. Evelyn Sharp, Webb & Knapp, Wellington Associates, Swiss hotel owner Rene Hatt, Sol Goldman, Irving Goldman, Arthur Cohen, William Zeckendorf Jr. and Steven Goodstein. Finally, in 1988, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd., the parent company of the Peninsula Group of hotels in Asia, bought the Gotham Hotel for $127 million and renamed it the Peninsula Hotel. At last, the Gotham got the owner it had needed since 1905. If you ever stayed at the original Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, you know what true luxury and service really feel like: complimentary fruit and champagne in your room while watching the Star Ferry cross the harbor outside your window; a Rolls-Royce for guest transportation to meetings and the airport; savoring a double espresso in the busy lobby bar while reading the International Herald Tribune.

The New York Peninsula Hotel has received the AAA Five Diamond Award for thirteen consecutive years. The Peninsula has one of the best and biggest hotel health clubs in New York including a 35,000 square foot spa, a glass-enclosed swimming pool and the rooftop bar and terrace.

The hotel has opted for an amenity that is more sporty than chic: chauffeur-driven Mini Coopers. The cars are available for up to three hours a day to guests who book a suite. Passenger can follow city tours that are stored on iPhones or iPads in the cars, or they can simply tell drivers where they want to go. The cars, the Mini Cooper S Clubman model, have been customized a bit. They hold a mini-refrigerator and a cargo box on top for shopping bags. Aside from the make, the main difference between these and the Hong Kong fleet: you won’t get a trip to the airport. These vehicles are intended strictly for joy rides.

The old Gotham is an orphan no more.

My New Book “Hotel Mavens Volume 3:

Bob and Larry Tisch, Curt Strand, Ralph Hitz, Cesar Ritz, Raymond Orteig” has just been published.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)
Great American Hotel Architects Volume I (2019)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.119

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Contact: Stanley Turkel

stanturkel@aol.com/917-628-8549

Instagram

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Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 225: Hotel History: The Grand Hotel, Point Clear, Alabama

Posted on January 21, 2020 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 225: Hotel History: The Grand Hotel, Point Clear, Alabama

Stanley Turkel | January 14, 2020

Hotel History: Grand Hotel, Point Clear, Alabama (306 Rooms)

The site on which The Grand Hotel sits today has seen two earlier hotels so named and the area surrounding the hotel and grounds has had a long and exciting history. It begins in 1847, when a Mr. Chamberlain built a rambling, 100-foot long, two-story hotel with lumber brought down from Mobile by sailboats. There were forty guest rooms and a shaded front gallery with outside stairs at each end. The dining room was located in an adjacent structure, and a third two-story building, called The Texas, housed the bar. Destroyed in an 1893 hurricane, the bar was rebuilt and, according to one contemporary report, “It was the gathering place for the merchants of the South, and poker games with high stakes, and billiards enlivened with the best of liquors were their pastimes.” A fourth building, a two-story frame mansion called Gunnison House, was originally a private summer residence. It became a popular meeting place before the Civil War.

As one of the remaining Confederate strongholds during the Civil War, the port in Mobile was a popular spot for blockade runners. During the 1864 battle between the Confederates and Union, led by Admiral David Farragut- in which he famously proclaimed “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”- the confederates bombarded the Union soldiers with torpedoes, eventually sinking the Tecumseh. A large hole was found in the wall of the Gunnison House, located on the site of the Convention Center today. The city of Mobile remained in Confederate hands until 1865 while the hotel was turned into a base hospital for Confederate soldiers. Farragut was a Southern Unionist who strongly opposed Southern secession and remained loyal to the Union after the outbreak of the Civil War.

300 Confederate soldiers died while at the hospital and are buried in the on-site cemetery, Confederate Rest. The soldiers were buried shoulder-to-shoulder, in mass graves. In 1869, a fire destroyed the documents that identified the deceased and a monument to the unknown soldiers was later constructed at the cemetery, which still stands today.

The hotel reopened after the war, but was almost destroyed by a fire in1869. Miraculously, none of the 150 guests was injured, and all their personal effects, as well as the hotel linens and most of the furniture, were saved.

Repairs were made and the hotel was soon again enjoying a prosperous existence. But then, in August 1871, tragedy struck. The twenty-seven-ton steamer Ocean Wave exploded at the Point Clear pier and scores of hotel guests died. For years afterward, sections of the wrecked steamer could be spotted during low tide.

After the explosion, Captain H. C. Baldwin of Mobile acquired the property, and built a new hotel that resembled the earlier 100-foot-long structure, but was three times longer. Baldwin’s son-in-law, George Johnson, Louisiana State Treasurer, took an active role in the business and became the owner upon Baldwin’s death. This two-story facility of sixty suites was opened in 1875. Steamers stopped at Point Clear three times a week bringing hotel guests. By 1889, boats arrived daily. The winter rates were two dollars a day, ten dollars weekly, and forty dollars by the month. The resort flourished.

In the 1890s, Point Clear was the center of the most brilliant social life in the Deep South. Boats crowded with pleasure-seekers from Mobile and New Orleans docked at the pier; carriages and tandem bikes dashed in and out of the drive; blaring bands and picnickers flocked to the broad lawns. The Grand Hotel was known as “The Queen of Southern Resorts.”

By 1939, however, the place was so badly rundown that its new owners, the Waterman Steamship Company, had it razed and, in 1940, built Grand Hotel III. This was a modern air-conditioned building with ninety rooms; it spread long and low, with giant picture windows and glassed-in porches. A few years later, cottages were constructed, utilizing lumber, especially the fine heart-pine flooring and framing, from the old building. During World War II, when the shipping company turned over the facilities to the United States government for $1 million, it was with the stipulation that the soldiers were not to wear shoes indoors lest they damage the pine floors.

In 1955, the hotel was acquired by McLean Industries, and ten years later J. K. McLean himself bought it and formed the present Grand Hotel Company. A new fifty-room addition was built and extensive improvements were made.

In 1967, a second 9-hole golf course and the first conference center were added. In 1979, the hotel closed as a result of Hurricane Frederick and after repairs reopened on April 10, 1980. In 1981, the Marriott Corporation bought The Grand Hotel and added the North Bay House and the Marina Building, bringing total guest rooms to 306. In 1986, the old Gunnison House was torn down to make way for The Grand Ballroom. Marriott added an additional 9-hole golf course for a total of 36 holes. Major renovations to the hotel were completed in 2003, including a new spa, pool and additional guest rooms. Renovation of the Dogwood course was completed in 2004. The renovation of the Azalea course was completed in 2005.

An expansion of the Grand’s grounds and new real estate opportunities were announced in 2006. The Colony Club at the Grand Hotel opened in spring 2008 and featured condominiums overlooking picturesque Point Clear and Mobile Bay. A new aquatics facility and a tennis center opened at the resort in July 2009.

Daily patriotic military salute and cannon firing started in 2008. The hotel continues to honor the military influence. Each day a processional begins at the lobby, weaves around the grounds, and concludes with the firing of a cannon at 4:00 PM. The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa, is a member of the Historic Hotels Autograph Collection of America and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

My New Book, “Great American Hotel Architects” is Available

My eighth hotel history book features twelve architects who designed 94 hotels from 1878 to 1948: Warren & Wetmore, Henry J. Hardenbergh, Schultze & Weaver, Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, Bruce Price, Mulliken & Moeller, McKim, Mead & White, Carrere & Hastings, Julia Morgan, Emery Roth, Trowbridge & Livingston, George B. Post and Sons.

You can order copies from the publisher AuthorHouse by posting “Great American Hotel Architects” by Stanley Turkel.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.118

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Contact: Stanley Turkel

stanturkel@aol.com/917-628-8549

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Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 224: Hotel History: Red Lion Inn

Posted on December 25, 2019 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 224: Hotel History: The Red Lion Inn

Stanley Turkel | December 23, 2019

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Hotel History: The Red Lion Inn (108 Rooms)

For more than 246 years, the Red Lion Inn has been welcoming visitors to the Berkshires with traditional New England hospitality. Sometime in 1773, Anna and Silas Bingham opened a general store which became a stagecoach stop, tavern and the Stockbridge House. In 1786, Daniel Shays led a group of more than 100 local farmers and citizens to protest post-war taxation. Stockbridge was the headquarters for “Shays Rebellion.”

In 1807, Anna Bingham sold the eight-room inn to store owner Silas Pepoon. Over time, the Inn changed hands many times and in 1862 Charles and Mert Plumb began a ninety-year family ownership dynasty. The arrival of the Housatonic Railroad in 1842 and its extension to Pittsfield in 1850 made Stockbridge more accessible and attractive to wealthy families who built grand “cottages”. In 1884, the Inn was enlarged to accommodate 100 guests and the quality of food and amenities improved. Under Mert Plumb’s direction the Inn was renamed “Plumb’s Hotel” and became a museum-like repository of antique furniture, crockery, pewter and teapots.

In 1896, a fire nearly destroyed the property but the Berkshire Courier in Great Barrington reported that “Mrs. Plumb’s noted collection of colonial china, pictures, wearing apparel and furniture, the largest of its kind in the country, and to the delight of everyone who went to Stockbridge, was saved.” Mr. Plumb’s nephew, Allen T. Treadway (aided by his assistant James H. Punderson, whose daughter Molly later became the third wife of famed illustrator Norman Rockwell) undertook the restoration and in May 1897, the Red Lion was opened, more attractive than ever.

From the Red Lion Inn’s inception until it was leveled by fire in 1896, its crest was a red lion waving a green tail. It is believed that while the red lion was symbolic of the Crown, the green tail indicated sympathy for the colonists during the Revolutionary War. At its rebirth in 1897, Mr. Treadway unveiled a new crest in the form of a shield. At the top were a lion and two dates: 1773 and 1897, indicating the birth and rebirth of the Inn. Within the body of the shield were a teapot, plate, Franklin stove, highboy, clock and two large keys representing the Inn’s fine collection of antiques. In the early 1920s, the shield was replaced by the traditional lion that we see today, plump and well-fed sporting the familiar red tail.

In November 1968, the Inn was nearly demolished for construction of a gasoline station. It was rescued by John and Jane Fitzpatrick, the founders of Country Curtains, a mail order business. The Fitzpatricks were so intrigued by the Inn’s history that they installed a large new kitchen and dining room called Widow Bingham’s tavern. On May 29, 1969, the Inn was opened for year-round business for the first time. In 1974, several nearby buildings, including the former village firehouse, were purchased to be used as guesthouses. Mr. Fitzpattrick served four terms as Massachusetts state senator from 1972-1980 and once again the Red Lion Inn became the center of political activity in Berkshire County.

A charter member of Historic Hotels of America since 1989, The Red Lion Inn has been providing food and lodging to guests for more than two centuries. The Red Lion is recommended by National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. It offers 108 antique-filled rooms and suites, formal and casual dining with an emphasis on contemporary regional specialties, and the Lion’s Den pub with nightly entertainment, a year-round heated outdoor pool and hot tub (with radiant-heated patio).

The inn has hosted six presidents and numerous other notable figures including Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Cullen Bryant and Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. The Red Lion’s quintessential New England charm was immortalized by Norman Rockwell in his painting Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas.

My New Book, “Great American Hotel Architects” is Available

You can order copies from the publisher AuthorHouse by posting “Great American Hotel Architects” by Stanley Turkel.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.90

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Website: (www.stanleyturkel.com)

Contact: Stanley Turkel

stanturkel@aol.com/917-628-8549

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Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 223: Hotel History: The Wales Hotel

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 223: Hotel History: The Wales Hotel (1902)

Stanley Turkel | December 03, 2019

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Hotel History: The Wales Hotel

One of the most charming historic hotels in New York, the Wales Hotel is closing its doors in 2020. It opened in 1902 as the 92-room Hotel Chastaignery on 92^nd Street and Madison Avenue in the neighborhood called Carnegie Hill. After four name changes over one hundred years it became the Hotel Wales in 2000. Its earlier names after Chastaignery were Hotel Bibo, Hotel Bon Ray, the Carnegie Hill Hotel and the Wales Hotel.

An original 1902 hotel brochure described the opening of the Hotel Chastaignery as follows:

A new fireproof family hotel and public restaurant just opened by Mr. Charles Jaimes of the Brevoort House. Situated at Madison Avenue and Ninety-second Street, it is undoubtedly destined to prove a brilliant and permanent success.

The Chastaignery is a new and splendid building situated at the highest altitude and in the heart of the wealthy residential centre of the city. It is a nine-story structure, fronting 100 feet on Madison Avenue and 63 feet on Ninety-second Street.

Mr. James has created this establishment at an enormous cost, and in doing so he has benefited the entire neighborhood. It gives to New Yorkers or to visitors from other cities, a splendid resort in a magnificent neighborhood, which does away with the necessity for a journey down town.

That Mr. Jaimes will make a brilliant and permanent success of his new departure may be regarded as a foregone conclusion. No man stands higher as a hotel keeper, or is more widely known or more universally respected, and none has a greater body of friends. A native of France, Mr. Jaimes was for many years with the Grand Hotel of Paris. Then he was a long time with Delmonico and for the last seven years or so he has been proprietor of the Brevoort.

The Carnegie Hill neighborhood encompasses roughly the area from 86^th Street to 96^th Street between Central Park and Lexington Avenue. It contains the former Carnegie, Vanderbilt and Sloan mansions on Fifth Avenue. More than a half dozen major museums including the Metropolitan, Guggenheim, Cooper-Hewitt and Jewish Museum are in close proximity to galleries, haute couture designers, chic boutiques and up-scale restaurants.

In the early years of the twentieth century, the Hotel Chastaignery was renamed the Hotel Bon Ray by its new proprietor, Morris Newgold. The hotel published the following well-written brochure:

Madison Avenue at Ninety-second street is on the topmost rise of the highest hill in New York’s centre, and nearly every apartment in the Bon Ray overlooks Central Park and obtains an extended vista over the reservoir, a large lake and the trees. Walks extending in all directions within this enchanting spot. An ideal playground for children, furnishing beautiful and invigorating walking grounds for older folks. No more healthful location can be found in this greatest of cities.

While the hotel appeals to the many families in the great Southland who visit New York, especially in summer, when they wish to escape the heat and turmoil of a great throbbing city with all its noises, yet the main support it receives is from those who live all the year round in the city and engage in business, those who want a quiet, restful retreat at night when they get home to spend the time with their families. It is to this class of patrons that the Bon Ray offers apartments on long leases, either furnished or unfurnished, at such rates as to provide a home at reasonable cost. Only by inspection can one arrive at a knowledge of what we have to offer, and those who investigate receive the same courtesy, should they not become tenants, as those who do.

Dining-Room.

The owner of the Bon Ray, by careful attention to the quality of the food, its preparation, service to the table and rooms, has established a high standard of excellence, and furnishes American plan board that will satisfy the connoisseur.

Construction.

The Hotel Bon Ray is of steel construction and absolutely fireproof, with fire escapes connecting with every suite, fire tanks on the roof connected with separate stand pipes, and long lines of fire hose, in perfect order, on every floor.

There are long distance telephones in each apartment.

The rooms are light and airy, the parlors fitted with parquet floors, and the decorations the best that good taste can devise. The toilet appointments are complete and superb.

The bathrooms are finished entirely in white Italian marble.

Ball Room and Mezzanine Floor.

An exquisite Ball Room with a perfect floor and ventilating system, Banquet Room and Special Kitchen, together with Ladies Parlor and Gentlemen’s Smoking Room. Medium sized rooms for private dinner are located on the Mezzanine Floor, which is used for weddings, receptions, announcements, dancing, card parties, etc. Special prices and terms are made for any of these events upon request. The tableware, candelabra, napiery and silverware of rare beauty and in good taste. Frequent dances are given by the Bon Ray during the season, which are free to the guests and their friends.

A Parting Word.

To those who are dissatisfied with their present living quarters, and to those who are about to establish a new home, this booklet is addressed. It is hard for some people to find satisfactory homes even among the abundance to be had in New York. This is partly due to the fact that apartment houses do not, as a rule, contain all the advantages wished for, and there are often important features lacking. The Hotel Bon Ray combines about every advantage in its arrangements that is possible to obtain, and those interested in the task of finding a new home are cordially invited to call and inspect for themselves.

In recent years the strip of territory next to the easterly wall of the city’s greatest park has been recognized as the choicest residential section of America. The Carnegie, Vanderbilt and Sloan group of mansions (one block from the hotel), occupy the choicest positions with reference to the Park and aid in furnishing the beautiful view obtained from the hotel windows.

Come and see for yourself. Out-of- town patrons should have in mind that they can secure apartments of several rooms and bath at a price no greater than they would pay at some other hotels for a single room and bath. To those in Europe, South America or Cuba, especially we urge that they write and get our rates.

The Hotel Wales is scheduled to close in January 2020. The real estate firm Adelloo LLC bought the Wales for $56.25 million and is promoting what it calls a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience classic New York City” with a Hotel Wales Curtain Call Package that includes a 20% off regular rates on stays two nights or more from June 23 until closing in January 2020. The building will be converted to luxury condos after that.

My New Book, “Great American Hotel Architects” is Available

You can order copies from the publisher AuthorHouse by posting “Great American Hotel Architects” by Stanley Turkel.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.122

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Contact: Stanley Turkel

stanturkel@aol.com/917-628-8549

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Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 222: Hotel History: YMCA of Greater New York

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Stanley Turkel

Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 222: Hotel History: YMCA of Greater New York

Stanley Turkel | November 13, 2019

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Hotel History: YMCA of Greater New York

Do you know that there is a 167-year old organization located in New York City which owns and operates more than 1,200 hotel rooms in five separate locations in three boroughs? Some of its facilities are housed in landmark buildings and contain world-class athletic and fitness centers that surpass all private competitive facilities.

It’s the YMCA of Greater New York which traces its roots to 1852 and has evolved as a flexible organization serving people of both genders, all ages, races, and religious beliefs. Its history is one of responding energetically and consistently to the times and the changing needs of its constituents and communities.

From its initial evangelical Christian orientation, the YMCA has grown to be a secular, values-oriented organization with a special focus on positive development in city youth. Historically it has served the urban poor as well as the middle class with programs ranging from educational courses and employment bureaus to gymnasiums and resident accommodations. Some people interpret “YMCA” to mean that YMCAs are only for “young Christian men.” Not true. Despite its name, the YMCA is not just for the young, not just for men and not just for Christians. All ages, all religions, all genders are welcome at the YMCA.

There are currently five YMCA properties in the New York area providing accommodations for transient guests. These YMCA’s house both male and female guests who are interested in finding safe, clean, affordable and centrally located guest room facilities, fitness centers and restaurants.

Guest rooms at the YMCA are singles and twin rooms (bunk beds) with shared bathroom facilities located down the corridors. There are a limited number of premium rooms with double beds and rooms with private baths at an additional cost.

Amenities at all the YMCA’s include daily housekeeping service, free group fitness classes, cardio strength training, basketball court/gymnasium, sauna, teen programs, youth sports, swim lessons, electronic door locks, guest laundry, luggage storage and restaurant.

West Side YMCA – 480 Rooms

The world’s largest YMCA opened to the public on Monday, March 31, 1930. It was designed by Architect Dwight James Baum who designed 140 houses in the Riverdale area from 1914 to 1939.

The West Side Y has two swimming pools: the Pompeiian pool (75’ x 25’) with glazed Italian tiles. The slightly smaller Spanish pool (60’ x 20’) is surfaced with Andalusian tiles of rich cobalt blue flecked with yellow, a gift from the Spanish government. The Y has three gymnasiums, one with a running track above; five handball/racquetball/ squash courts, two group exercise studios, 2,400 sq. ft. free weight room, boxing room with both heavy and speed bags, stretching and martial arts rooms, mediation studio for yoga and mediation classes. The building also houses the jewel-box Little Theater, where one-time resident Tennessee William’s play “Summer and Smoke” was presented in 1952.

Any number of famous people have stayed at the West Side Y while establishing their careers; among them Fred Allen, John Barrrymore, Montgomery Clift, Kirk Douglas, Eddie Duchin, Lee J. Cobb, Douglas Fairbanks, Dave Garroway, Bob Hope, Elia Kazan, Norman Rockwell, Robert Penn Warren and Johnny Weismuller.

A recent renovation to the bathrooms reflects an important amenity improvement that will be installed on the remainder of the West Side Y’s floors and ultimately to the other New York City YMCA’s. The shared bathroom facilities have been converted to private bathrooms, each with a stall shower, toilet, wash basin, good lighting, mirror, electrical outlet, hooks and new colorful tile from floor to ceiling. These locked private bathrooms are accessible only with the guests’ electronic room key card. These bathrooms are better than country club standard.

Vanderbilt YMCA – 367 Rooms

Located on Manhattan’s fashionable East Side, the Vanderbilt Y building has a classic design matching that of its neighbors, which include the United Nations and Grand Central Station. Over the doorway of the Vanderbilt Y these words are etched into the stone: “Railroad Branch Young Mens Christian Association”. It was initiated under Cornelius Vanderbilt II’s leadership in 1875 when the YMCA’s had grown enormously, spreading from Manhattan and the Bronx to Brooklyn and Queens.

The new Railroad YMCA opened in 1932 at a cost of $1.5 million at 224 East 47^th Street between Second and Third Avenues. In 1972 its name was changed to honor Cornelius Vanderbilt. The building has 367 guest rooms, a full-sized gymnasium, a modern four-lane indoor swimming pool with a one-meter diving board. There are shower rooms for men and women; weight training and exercise rooms; and massage, sunlamp and sauna departments.

The Vanderbilt’s spacious, air conditioned restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner from Monday through Friday. The facility seats 122 persons and serves more than 250,000 meals per year.

Harlem YMCA – 226 Rooms

The 135^th Street YMCA traces its roots to the summer of 1900 which was marked by racial disturbances in the still predominantly white Harlem and Manhattan’s Tenderloin district over the growing inequality of black citizens. Earlier a “colored” YMCA operated at 132 W. 53^rd Street in the heart of San Juan Hill, an African American residential area where fashionable clubs fueled artistic life and gave the district its reputation as a “black Bohemia”. Between 1910 and 1930, Harlem’s black population doubled creating the only large-scale, fully developed African American community in the nation.

Julius Rosenwald, a top executive of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Chicago, gave a total of $600,000 in challenge grants to build YMCA’s and YMCA’s for African Americans in many North American cities. One of those was the 135^th Street Y which opened in 1919 at a cost of $375,000. The Branch quickly established itself as a pillar of the community in civic and social affairs and of the Harlem Renaissance that began in the 1920s. Writing in theOutlook, Booker T. Washington noted that the gifts from his friend Julius Rosenwald to the YMCA “have been a help to my race….in what they are doing to convince the white people of this country that in the long run schools are cheaper than policemen; that there is more wisdom in keeping a man out of the ditch than in trying to save him after he has fallen in; that it is more Christian and more economical to prepare young men to live right than to punish them after they have committed a crime.” By 1940, the original Harlem Y was inadequate, overcrowded and worn and needed program space for boys, a supervised dormitory and counseling facilities for the thousands of African American youth seek work in New York City. Transient “Red Caps”, Pullman porters and dining car men, who were not allowed to use the segregated Railroad YMCA’s, also needed accommodations. In 1933, a new Harlem YMCA was built on West 135^th Street directly across from the existing Harlem Y. By 1938, the original Y was remodeled as the “Harlem annex” to house its boys’ department. In 1996, it was remodeled again, reopening as the Harlem YMCA Jackie Robinson Youth Center.

A cultural center unto itself, the Branch hosted and housed renowned writers such as Richard Wright, Claude McKay, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes; artists Jacob Lawrence and Aaron Douglas; actors Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Cicely Tyson and Paul Robeson. In years gone by, the Harlem YMCA’s 226 rooms were often occupied by African American visitors and performers to New York City who couldn’t get rooms in midtown hotels because of racial discrimination.

Flushing YMCA – 127 Rooms

Citizens in Flushing broke ground in 1924 for a YMCA Branch on Northern Boulevard near La Guardia Airport to serve residents of Bayside, Douglaston, College Point, Whitestone, Kew Gardens and other nearby communities. The building with 79 guest rooms opened in 1926. Subsequent expansion took place in the following two years with new playgrounds, athletic leagues, and summer camps. Flushing added a new wing with an Olympic-sized pool and a businessmen’s athletic club in 1967 and 1972, 48 guest rooms.

Greenpoint YMCA – 100 Rooms

The Brooklyn Association raised capital for new buildings through the 1903 Jubilee Fund, a drive that marked its 50^th Anniversary. Between 1904 and 1907, the Association completed three new buildings: Eastern District in Williamsburg; Bedford between Gates and Monroe Streets; and Greenpoint. Each of these branches contained a swimming pool, running track, gymnasium, club rooms, lounges and residence guest rooms. In 1918, the Greenpoint Branch added two floors of dormitory rooms. In its early days, it was known as the workingmen’s YMCA because of its focus on the needs of employees in many nearby factories.

William Sloane Memorial YMCA-1,600 Rooms

Opened in 1930 on West Thirty-Fourth Street and Ninth Avenue, the building was built primarily to serve more than 100,000 young men seeking their fortune during the Great Depression as well as the thousands of soldiers, sailors and marines during and after World War II. Finally, in 1991, the Association closed the Sloane House and sold the building.

In 1979, the singing group, the Village People, scored their biggest all-time hit in the form of “YMCA”, a disco smash recording. The band promoted the song with a folk dance routine that features hand signals illustrating the letters of the title. This caught on at discos around the world and has since become a part of pop-culture folklore. Anytime the song is played on a dance floor, it’s a safe bet that many people will perform the dance routine with the appropriate YMCA hand signals.

Y.M.C.A

“Young man, there’s no need to feel down.

I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.

I said, young man, ‘cause you’re in a new town

There’s no need to be unhappy.

Young man, there’s a place you can go.

I said, young man, when you’re short on your dough.

You can stay there, and I’m sure you will find

Many ways to have a good time.

It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A

It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A”

My New Book, “Great American Hotel Architects” is Available

You can order copies from the publisher AuthorHouse by posting “Great American Hotel Architects” by Stanley Turkel.

My Other Published Hotel Books

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)
Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)
Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016)
Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017)
Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018)

All of these books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the book’s title.

If You Need an Expert Witness:

For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving:

slip and fall accidents
wrongful deaths
fire and carbon monoxide injuries
hotel security issues
dram shop requirements
hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases

Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment.111

ABOUT STANLEY TURKEL

Contact: Stanley Turkel

stanturkel@aol.co/917-628-8549

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