Manhattan Hotel

Defunct

Address

Madison Avenue & 42nd Street

GPS

40.752860157209, -73.979295114386

BOOK

Anthony, walking along Forty-second Street one afternoon under a steel-gray sky, ran unexpectedly into Richard Caramel emerging from the Manhattan Hotel barber-shop. It was a cold day, the first definitely cold day, and Caramel had on one of those knee-length, sheep-lined coats long worn by the working men of the Middle West, that were just coming into fashionable approval. His soft hat was of a discreet dark brown, and from under it his clear eye flamed like a topaz. He stopped Anthony enthusiastically, slapping him on the arms more from a desire to keep himself warm than from playfulness, and, after his inevitable hand-shake, exploded into sound.

The Beautiful and Damned

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Built between 1895 and 1896 from a 1893 project by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, it was a major “railroad hotel” in the area around Grand Central Station. At around 76 metres tall, it was advertised as the tallest hotel building in the world, recognizable by its château-like roofline with several levels of dormers. The building had sixteen and a half storeys (fourteen above street level) and was noted for its grand dining rooms and lobbies, richly illuminated with chandeliers. It was demolished in 1961 to make way for an office tower.

OTHER LOCATIONS