Fifth Avenue Hotel
Encyclopedia
The Fifth Avenue Hotel was a former luxury hotel
located at 200 Fifth Avenue in New York City
, New York
from 1859 to 1908. It occupied the full Fifth Avenue frontage between 23rd Street
and 24th Street, at the southwest corner of Madison Square
in the borough
of Manhattan
.
The site that would become the Fifth Avenue Hotel was once the location of "Madison Cottage", a frame structure with an eighteenth-century core that had served as a stagecoach
stop for passengers headed north from the city. From 1853 to 1856 it was replaced by Franconi's Hippodrome, a tent-like structure of canvas and wood which could accommodate up to 10,000 spectators who watched chariot races and other "Amusesments of the Ancient Greeks and Romans". It was this structure that was torn down to make way for the hotel.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel was built in 1856–59 by Amos Richards Eno
at the cost of $2 million, was designed by Griffith Thomas
with William Washburn
. At the time of its construction it stood so far uptown from the centers of city life it was dubbed "Eno's Folly"; New York bankers refused to capitalize the project, and Eno turned to Boston for funding.
The hotel, which quickly developed a reputation as New York's most elegant, became "the social, cultural political hub of elite New York," and brought in a quarter of a million dollars a year in profits. It spurred development of additional hotels to the north and west, in the neighborhood known now as NoMad
("North of Madison Square Park").
' "vertical screw railway" the first passenger elevator installed in a hotel in the United States, a notable but cumbersome feature powered by a stationary steam engine, carried passengers to the upper floors by a revolving screw that passed through the center of the passenger cab.
The building was of a plain Italianate palazzo-front design, with a projecting tin cornice, but its sober exterior contained richly appointed public rooms: Harper's Weekly
reviewed its "heavy masses of gilt wood, rich crimson or green curtains, extremely handsome rose-wood
and brocatelle suits, rich carpets... the whole presenting about as handsome and as comfortless an appearance as any one need wish for." A correspondent for The Times
of London, in New York to cover the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1860, called the hotel "a larger and more handsome building than Buckingham Palace
."
The hotel employed four hundred servants to serve its guests, offered private bathrooms – an unprecedented extravagance at the time – and ran advertisements featuring a fireplace in every room. It was an instant success, an indication that elite New Yorkers were rejecting the republican values of their forefathers, and had begun to value instead grandeur, luxury and comfort.
President Ulysses S. Grant
's campaign began at a dinner party in the hotel, and he and his cabinet once held an official session there. The celebrity lawyer Chester A. Arthur
, also later president, kept a suite for his office; Edward, Prince of Wales
, stayed here on his North American tour, as did his brother-in-law the Duke of Argyll
, Dom Pedro of Brazil
and Prince Agustín de Iturbide y Green
of Mexico, Maximilian's adopted son. "It was a gathering place for fat cats like Boss Tweed
, Jay Gould
, Jim Fisk and Commodore Vanderbilt, who would trade stocks here after hours." The celebrated New York City physician, Dr. John Franklin Gray
, lived at the hotel. When the superbly confident young Jim Fisk first arrived in New York, he stayed at the Fifth Avenue hotel until he was temporarily ruined. Gore Vidal
made the Fifth Avenue Hotel a setting in his novel 1876
, for it was in a suite here that John C. Reid, editor of The New York Times
woke the Republican National Committee
chairman Zachariah Chandler
, and worked out the campaign for the controversial Presidential election of 1876
.
The hotel was also known as a stronghold of the Republican Party
: from a corner nook in one of the public rooms, which he dubbed his "Amen Corner
", Republican political boss Thomas Collier Platt controlled patronage in New York City and State for a few years in the 1890s; here he held his "Sunday School", where projects did not go forward until they had his "amen".
Its site was occupied in 1909 by the present office building, known as the Toy Center Building
, designed by Robert Maynicke
and Julius Franke, for Eno's grandson, Henry Lane Eno
. Until 2007 it housed the International Toy Center, which was filled with wholesale buyers come the February Toy Fair and then again in October. The old hotel's resounding name was taken up by a Fifth Avenue Hotel at 24 Fifth Avenue, a grid of windows in a brick facade, by Emery Roth
, since converted to apartments.
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
located at 200 Fifth Avenue in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
from 1859 to 1908. It occupied the full Fifth Avenue frontage between 23rd Street
23rd Street (Manhattan)
23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of few two-way streets in the gridiron of the borough. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since...
and 24th Street, at the southwest corner of Madison Square
Madison Square
Madison Square is formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States and the principal author of the United States Constitution.The focus of the square is...
in the borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
Site and construction
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
stop for passengers headed north from the city. From 1853 to 1856 it was replaced by Franconi's Hippodrome, a tent-like structure of canvas and wood which could accommodate up to 10,000 spectators who watched chariot races and other "Amusesments of the Ancient Greeks and Romans". It was this structure that was torn down to make way for the hotel.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel was built in 1856–59 by Amos Richards Eno
Amos Eno
Amos Richards Eno of Simsbury, Connecticut was an American merchant of dry goods who expanded into real estate in New York City, built the Fifth Avenue Hotel and established a prominent family fortune, of which the New York real estate alone was estimated at $20,000,000 at the time of his...
at the cost of $2 million, was designed by Griffith Thomas
Griffith Thomas
Griffith Thomas was an American architect.Architecture writer Christopher Gray called him "one of the most prolific architects of the period"...
with William Washburn
William Washburn
William Washburn may refer to:* William Washburn *William B. Washburn , American politician representing Massachusetts*William D. Washburn , American politician representing Minnesota...
. At the time of its construction it stood so far uptown from the centers of city life it was dubbed "Eno's Folly"; New York bankers refused to capitalize the project, and Eno turned to Boston for funding.
The hotel, which quickly developed a reputation as New York's most elegant, became "the social, cultural political hub of elite New York," and brought in a quarter of a million dollars a year in profits. It spurred development of additional hotels to the north and west, in the neighborhood known now as NoMad
NoMad
NoMad is a neighborhood centered around the Madison Square North Historic District in the borough of Manhattan in New York City....
("North of Madison Square Park").
Design and accommodations
The Fifth Avenue Hotel was of brick faced with white marble, of five storeys over a commercial ground floor. The first example of Otis TuftsOtis Tufts
Otis Tufts was a machinist and inventor who built the first steam-operated printing press in the United States and invented the steam pile driver.-Biography:...
' "vertical screw railway" the first passenger elevator installed in a hotel in the United States, a notable but cumbersome feature powered by a stationary steam engine, carried passengers to the upper floors by a revolving screw that passed through the center of the passenger cab.
The building was of a plain Italianate palazzo-front design, with a projecting tin cornice, but its sober exterior contained richly appointed public rooms: Harper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor...
reviewed its "heavy masses of gilt wood, rich crimson or green curtains, extremely handsome rose-wood
Rosewood
Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. All rosewoods are strong and heavy, taking an excellent polish, being suitable for guitars, marimbas, turnery , handles, furniture, luxury flooring, etc.In general,...
and brocatelle suits, rich carpets... the whole presenting about as handsome and as comfortless an appearance as any one need wish for." A correspondent for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of London, in New York to cover the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1860, called the hotel "a larger and more handsome building than Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
."
The hotel employed four hundred servants to serve its guests, offered private bathrooms – an unprecedented extravagance at the time – and ran advertisements featuring a fireplace in every room. It was an instant success, an indication that elite New Yorkers were rejecting the republican values of their forefathers, and had begun to value instead grandeur, luxury and comfort.
Notable events and uses
The hotel was host to numerous notable guests, both foreign and domestic, and was, for a time, the most exclusive hotel in the city, and the center of social life for elite New Yorkers.President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
's campaign began at a dinner party in the hotel, and he and his cabinet once held an official session there. The celebrity lawyer Chester A. Arthur
Chester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur was the 21st President of the United States . Becoming President after the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Arthur struggled to overcome suspicions of his beginnings as a politician from the New York City Republican machine, succeeding at that task by embracing...
, also later president, kept a suite for his office; Edward, Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, stayed here on his North American tour, as did his brother-in-law the Duke of Argyll
Duke of Argyll
Duke of Argyll is a title, created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The Earls, Marquesses, and Dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerful, if not the most powerful, noble family in Scotland...
, Dom Pedro of Brazil
Pedro II of Brazil
Dom Pedro II , nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of...
and Prince Agustín de Iturbide y Green
Agustín de Iturbide y Green
Don Agustín de Iturbide y Green, Prince of Iturbide was the grandson of Agustín de Iturbide, the first emperor of independent Mexico, and his consort Empress Ana María...
of Mexico, Maximilian's adopted son. "It was a gathering place for fat cats like Boss Tweed
Boss Tweed
William Magear Tweed – often erroneously referred to as William Marcy Tweed , and widely known as "Boss" Tweed – was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century...
, Jay Gould
Jay Gould
Jason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...
, Jim Fisk and Commodore Vanderbilt, who would trade stocks here after hours." The celebrated New York City physician, Dr. John Franklin Gray
John Franklin Gray
John Franklin Gray was an American educator and physician a pioneer in the field of and the first practitioner of homoeopathy in the United States...
, lived at the hotel. When the superbly confident young Jim Fisk first arrived in New York, he stayed at the Fifth Avenue hotel until he was temporarily ruined. Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
made the Fifth Avenue Hotel a setting in his novel 1876
1876 (novel)
Gore Vidal's 1876 is the third historical novel in his Narratives of Empire series. It was published in 1976 and details the events of a year described by Vidal himself as "probably the low point in our republic's history."...
, for it was in a suite here that John C. Reid, editor of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
woke the Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
chairman Zachariah Chandler
Zachariah Chandler
Zachariah Chandler was Mayor of Detroit , a four-term U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan , and Secretary of the Interior under U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant .-Family:...
, and worked out the campaign for the controversial Presidential election of 1876
United States presidential election, 1876
The United States presidential election of 1876 was one of the most disputed and controversial presidential elections in American history. Samuel J. Tilden of New York outpolled Ohio's Rutherford B. Hayes in the popular vote, and had 184 electoral votes to Hayes's 165, with 20 votes uncounted...
.
The hotel was also known as a stronghold of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
: from a corner nook in one of the public rooms, which he dubbed his "Amen Corner
Amen Corner
Amen Corner may refer to:*Amen Corner , 1960s British pop group*Amen Corner , 1983 musical*Amen Corner , novel by Rick Shefchik*The Amen Corner, 1954 play by James Baldwin...
", Republican political boss Thomas Collier Platt controlled patronage in New York City and State for a few years in the 1890s; here he held his "Sunday School", where projects did not go forward until they had his "amen".
Demolition
The Fifth Avenue Hotel closed at midnight, 4 April 1908 and was demolished.Its site was occupied in 1909 by the present office building, known as the Toy Center Building
Toy Center
The Toy Center, also known as the International Toy Center, is a complex of buildings in the New York City borough of Manhattan that for many years has been a hub for toy manufacturers and distributors in the United States. It consists of two buildings located between 23rd Street and 25th Street...
, designed by Robert Maynicke
Robert Maynicke
Robert Maynicke was an American architect. The New York Times called him "a pioneer in the building of modern loft buildings."...
and Julius Franke, for Eno's grandson, Henry Lane Eno
Henry Lane Eno
Henry Lane Eno was born in New York City on July 8, 1871; he died at Montacute House, Somerset, on September 28, 1928. A member of the Eno real estate and banking family, he was the son of Henry Clay Eno and his wife Cornelia, the daughter of George W...
. Until 2007 it housed the International Toy Center, which was filled with wholesale buyers come the February Toy Fair and then again in October. The old hotel's resounding name was taken up by a Fifth Avenue Hotel at 24 Fifth Avenue, a grid of windows in a brick facade, by Emery Roth
Emery Roth
Emery Roth was an American architect who designed many of the definitive New York City hotels and apartment buildings of the 1920s and 30s, incorporating Beaux-Arts and Art Deco details...
, since converted to apartments.