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Gilsey House Hotel
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a view from down Broadway (2010)
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| Location: | 1200 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City |
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| Built: | 1869-1871 |
| Architect: | Stephen Decatur Hatch |
| Architectural style: | Second Empire |
| Governing body: | private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 78001872 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP: | December 14, 1978 |
| Designated NYCL: | September 11, 1979 |
Gilsey House is a former eight-story 300-room hotel[1] located at 1200 Broadway at East 29th Street in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is a New York City landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.
Gilsey House was designed by Stephen Decatur Hatch for Peter Gilsey, a Danish immigrant merchant and city alderman[2] who leased[2] the plot – which included the grounds of the St. George Cricket Club – from Caspar Samlar for $10,000 a year.[2][3][4][1] It was constructed from 1869 to 1871 at the cost of $350,000,[1] opening as the Gilsey House Hotel in 1872.[4][5] The cast-iron for the facade of the Second Empire style building was fabricated by Daniel D. Badger,[3][1] a significant and influential advocate for cast-iron architecture at the time;[2] the extent to which Badger contributed to the design of the facade is unknown.[1]
The hotel was luxurious – the rooms featured rosewood and walnut finishing, marble fireplace mantles, bronze chandeliers[4] and tapestries [1] – and offered services to its guests such as telephones, the first hotel in New York to do so.[3] It was a favorite of Diamond Jim Brady and Oscar Wilde, Samuel Clemens was a guest,[4][6][7] and it attracted the theatrical trade[3] at a time when the area – which became known as the "Tenderloin" – was becoming the primary entertainment and amusement district for New York's growing population,[8] with numerous theatres, gambling clubs and brothels.[2]
Gilsey House closed in 1911 after legal conflict beginning in 1904 between the operator of the hotel, Seaboard Hotel Company, and the Gilsey estate over the terms of the lease.[9] Parts of the facade, such as cast-iron columns, which went over the property line were removed, and the building deteriorated, with rust, water damage and sagging floors.[4] In 1925, plans were filed to rebuild the structure as an ordinary loft building of brick and stone, but were never carried out,[1] although the ground-level storefronts were modernized in 1946.[2] The building's future was decided when it was purchased in 1980 by Richard Berry and F. Anthony Zunino and converted into co-operative apartments[4] after a cosmetic cleanup of the exterior, which won a commendation from the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture.[1] The facade was finally almost fully restored in 1992 by Building Conservation Associates.[8]
The building, with its "extraordinary" three-story mansard roof [8] and its "vigor that only the waning years of the 19th century could muster"[5] was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It was designated a New York City landmark in 1979.[8]
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gilsey_House Gilsey House] at Wikimedia Commons
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