Hotel Pennsylvania
The Hotel Pennsylvania was a hotel at 401 Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, across from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. Opened in 1919, it was once the largest hotel in the world. It remained the city's fourth-largest until it closed permanently on April 1, 2020. After years of unsuccessful preservation battles, it was demolished in 2023. The hotel is to be replaced by 15 Penn Plaza, a 50-story tower.
The Pennsylvania Railroad announced the construction of a hotel on Seventh Avenue in 1916, six years after completing the original New York Penn Station. The Hotel Pennsylvania was formally dedicated on January 25, 1919, and was originally managed by Ellsworth M. Statler of the Statler Hotels chain. Statler Hotels agreed to buy the property in 1948, and the Pennsylvania was renamed the Hotel Statler. The hotel became The Statler Hilton in 1958, four years after Hilton Hotels & Resorts acquired it.
The developer William Zeckendorf Jr. bought the Statler Hilton in 1979, after which the hotel was operated by Dunfey Hotels and renamed the New York Statler. The hotel was sold again in 1983 to a joint venture, renamed the New York Penta, and renovated extensively. The hostelry was renamed several times in the 1990s, eventually becoming the Hotel Pennsylvania. Vornado Realty Trust and Ong Beng Seng bought the hotel in 1997, although Vornado later bought out Ong's stake. Vornado considered closing and demolishing the Hotel Pennsylvania several times before finally shuttering it in 2020.
The Hotel Pennsylvania was designed by McKim, Mead & White. It was 22 stories high, including the street level and the rooftop; there was also a three-story penthouse. The first four stories occupied nearly the entire site and had an Indiana Limestone facade. Above the fourth story, the facade was made of buff-colored and gray brick, and the hotel building was divided into four wings that faced south toward 32nd Street. The public rooms were largely on the lower floors and included a ground-level lobby, a restaurant called the Cafe Rouge, and a ballroom level. The hotel originally had 2,200 guestrooms, which started at the fifth story. The Hotel Pennsylvania used the prominent and memorable telephone number, PEnnsylvania 6-5000, which inspired the lyrics and title of the song "Pennsylvania 6-5000".
History
In the late 19th century, the site around the Hotel Pennsylvania was mostly residential, with three- and four-story row houses and four- and five-story tenements. The Pennsylvania Railroad had completed the original Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, in 1910. In conjunction with the railroad station's opening, the PRR had acquired all lots on the eastern side of Seventh Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets, directly east of the station, though the railroad did not initially develop the sites. The northern site, which became the Hotel Pennsylvania, measured long on 32nd and 33rd Streets and long on Seventh Avenue. The southern site was sold in 1921 to Equitable Holdings, which developed 11 Penn Plaza there.Development
In January 1916, the PRR announced that it would build a 1,000-room hotel on the Seventh Avenue site for about $9 million; the hotel itself would cost $5 million, while the furnishings and land would cost $4 million. The hotel was to be designed by McKim, Mead & White, which had also designed the original Pennsylvania Station. The planned hotel was cited as being either ten or twelve stories. The PRR hoped that the hotel's construction would spur development in the surrounding area, particularly after the Interborough Rapid Transit Company's 34th Street–Penn Station subway station opened in two years. In addition, the site was near several major attractions, including multiple Broadway theaters, department stores, and hotels. The PRR wished to compete with the New York Central Railroad, which was concurrently constructing the Commodore Hotel near Grand Central Terminal, as well as attract business travelers and professional conventions.The PRR hired the George A. Fuller Company as the hotel's general contractor in March 1916; the Fuller Company constructed the Pennsylvania and the Commodore simultaneously. The PRR also hired Post & McCord as the steel contractor. The hotel's cost had increased to $11 million by that April; this cost included $7.5 million for the actual hotel, $2.5 million for the land, and $1 million for furnishings. The PRR filed plans for a 20-story hotel in May 1916, to be designed by McKim, Mead & White. Initially, the PRR leased the hotel to Franklin J. Matchette for 21 years. In December 1916, Ellsworth M. Statler of the Statler Hotels chain purchased a controlling interest in Matchette's lease. Matchette and Statler formed the New York Hotel Statler Company, which issued stock to finance the hotel's construction. Both men initially had a 50 percent stake in the company, but Matchette turned over a 25 percent stake to Statler shortly after the company was established.
The PRR announced in December 1916 that the hotel would be named the Hotel Pennsylvania and that construction of the hotel's foundations would commence the next month. Matchette's firm, the Servidor Company, also provided the hotel's original equipment and furnishings including the doors for each guestroom. The hotel's construction required over of steel and nine million bricks, although some of these materials were difficult to obtain because of World War I restrictions. During construction, in July 1917, one worker was killed by a falling steel girder. In addition, the hotel's dynamo room caught fire and then exploded in April 1918, damaging the facade and a sidewalk shed around the hotel. That June, Statler Hotels issued $3 million in bonds to finance the hotel's construction. Roy Carruthers was hired as the hotel's first general manager in late 1918. Statler planned to rent rooms within a relatively narrow price range, saying: "I am working on the assumption that New York wants a first-class hotel where the ratio between the minimum and maximum rates will be nearer together than is usually the case."
Statler operation
The Hotel Pennsylvania was formally dedicated on January 25, 1919. On that day, 3,000 spectators viewed the hotel, and 2,000 people ate in the main dining room. The Pennsylvania's 2,200 guest rooms and baths made it the largest hotel in the world at the time; it was slightly larger than the Commodore, which opened a few days later on January 28. However, only 1,200 rooms were available when the hotel opened, and some of the public rooms were still incomplete. Thirty days after the hotel opened, Statler Hotels started paying $200,000 in annual rent for the site; this amounted to five percent of the hotel building's assessed value of $4 million. In addition, Statler would pay six percent of the construction cost each year. One architectural critic wrote that the hotel's completion "marked a great step forward in hotel efficiency", as it had an efficient design that was not overly ornate.1920s and 1930s
In the hotel's early years, it hosted such events as a charity event for the Jewish Federations of North America, a meeting for veterans, and a showcase of radio equipment. Employees established a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Register in 1921, which according to The Christian Science Monitor was "said to be the only daily newspaper published in a hotel". In 1922, the Pennsylvania became the first hotel on the East Coast of the United States to receive radio telegraph service. The Pennsylvania remained the world's largest hotel until the late 1920s, when the New Yorker Hotel was constructed.E. M. Statler managed the hotel until January 1928, when Frank A. Duggan took over as the hotel's manager. After Duggan left for the Hotel McAlpin that April, Statler again became the hotel's manager, although Statler died two weeks later. Following Statler's death, Leo Molony was appointed as the hotel's manager. In 1929, Matchette filed two lawsuits in the New York Surrogate's Court, seeking a combined $10 million in damages from the New York Hotel Statler Company Inc. and Ellsworth Statler's estate. Matchette claimed that Statler had given excessive salaries to himself and his family members and that Statler had mismanaged the hotel's construction. Matchette filed four lawsuits in the New York Supreme Court in 1930, seeking $17.5 million in damages from Statler's estate, the Hotel Statler Company, and the directors of the hotel company.
PRR received a $5 million mortgage loan from Prudential Insurance in 1933, replacing two loans that the hotel had received in 1917 and 1923. The Automobile Club of New York moved its headquarters to the hotel in 1933, and the hotel's Room, decorated with cartoons depicting life in New York City, opened the same year. The hotel continued to host large events in the 1930s, including ping-pong matches, home equipment exhibitions, National Board of Review conferences, and architects' conventions. Molony managed the hotel until January 1937, when Duggan replaced him. James H. McCabe became the hotel's manager that June after Duggan was promoted to a vice president within Statler Hotels.