St. Nicholas Hotel (New York City)

The St Nicholas Hotel, depicted in a 1855 lithograph by Friedrich Ludwig Heppenheimer

The St. Nicholas Hotel was a 600-room, mid-nineteenth century luxury hotel in New York City. [1] It opened on January 6, 1853. It raised the bar for a new standard of lavish appointments for a luxury hotel.[2] It was the first New York City building to cost over $1 million.[3][4][5] The hotel was said to have ended the Astor House's preeminence in New York hostelry.[6]

Description

The hotel was at 507–527 Broadway. The main central plan and design of the white marble-façade hotel was prepared by the owner D. H. Haight. The architects involved were J. B. Snook and Griffith Thomas. The hotel building fronted 275 feet on Broadway, 200 feet on Spring Street and 275 feet on Mercer Street. At the time when the original hotel opened there was an extension to the building in progress. This extension was completed by the end of the year. The hotel building then took up the full city block between Spring Street and Broome Street. The six-story hotel was of Italian architecture "modified Corinthian". The entrance was between four grooved white marble columns.[7]

Interior

The hotel cost $1,200,000 to build and accommodated one thousand guests weekly.[8] It took another $700,000 to furnish the hotel completely. It had several dining rooms with the main dining room on the second floor holding 400 guests.[9]

The ceilings were decorated and painted. They contained hanging chandeliers that had twenty gas lights each. Adjoining the dining room was an ornate tea room. The elaborate haircutting saloon was illuminated by a gilded decorated domed skylight. This barber shop saloon could cater to some dozen guests at a time.[3]

The main lobby had a white oak staircase leading to the upper floors. The first landing of this staircase contained a $1,100 chandelier. This was one of many expensive elaborate lighting fixtures throughout the hotel. At this landing also was a painting of the Dutch mythical gift-giving figure Sinterklaas (aka St. Nicholas) placing presents into Christmas stockings.[3]

The hotel had public rooms paneled in mahogany and walnut. The lighting was with gas lights. There was much use of gold paint throughout the hotel. The hotel had window curtains that cost $700 a piece and gold embroidered draperies costing $1,000 per pair.[10] It had bathtubs encased in carved walnut and there were lots of mirrors everywhere. There was steam heat on all floors in public hallways. It had stoves in guestrooms on the sleeping floors. The beds had springs. The hotel had a $1,500 grand piano and a bridal chamber.[11] The hotel developed something of a reputation for having a 'fast crowd', such that an agreement to an assignation there was reputed to be an admission of loss of chastity – unless it happened to be a bride in the bridal suite, which was outfitted with the finest damask.[10]

Significant events

The evening of November 25, 1864, the hotel was involved in a terrorist attack by the so-called Confederate Army of Manhattan,[12] that is, Confederate saboteurs, who thought they would set fire to New York City. It was one of more than a dozen of the finest New York hotels that were infested by them with a purpose to set them afire.[13] Other hotels included Astor House and the Metropolitan Hotel. The attempt was ill-conceived and badly done.[13] The fires largely self extinguished due to a lack of oxygen; they were set in locked rooms, the technology was not well-developed, and the terrorists were intent on making their own escape.[6][13][14]

Demise

521 and 523

By the later part of the nineteenth century the hotel had declined in popularity – most New York City tourists preferring to stay farther uptown. Beginning in the mid 1870s certain parts of the hotel building were being converted to other uses. Snook-designed Loubat store (No. 503-5ll) took the southern wing in 1878. The central portion (No. 513-519) became Samuel Warner's store and warehouse in 1884. The hotel permanently closed then. Two slivers of the original building were saved when the hotel was demolished in the twentieth century. This is now luxury condos of 521 and 523 Broadway. The upper stories of No. 521 have most of their original ornamented moldings on the windows.[7]

Although the hotel once occupied the entirety of the block adjacent to Broome Street, the building has more or less disappeared: only Lady Footlocker and The Puma Store now occupy the slivers.[15] The opulent exterior was the subject of an 1855 lithograph by artist Frederick Heppenheimer, which is now part of the collection of the Museum of the City of New York, being artifact No. 39.253.6.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Landau & Condit 1999, p. 16.
  2. ↑ McGinty 1978, pp. 20, 24.
  3. 1 2 3 "The Lost 1853 St. Nicholas Hotel – Broadway between Broome and Spring". February 13, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2015. The St. Nicholas set a new standard for luxury, expense and lavish appointments. It was the first New York City building to cost $1 million in construction—approximately $29 million by today’s standards.
  4. ↑ "NYC Luxury Hotels". Vox_Media. Retrieved December 3, 2015. The New York Times soon anointed the St. Nicholas, also New York's first building to cost $1 million in construction, the city's premier hotel, writing, "This magnificent establishment, which in extent of accommodation, completeness of arrangement, costliness and chaste elegance of decoration, and combination of all modern improvements, takes place as the Hotel par excellence of our day."
  5. ↑ Johnson 2010, p. 201.
  6. 1 2 "St Nicholas Hotel". Curbed_NY. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  7. 1 2 New York Landmarks Preservation Commission "NYCLPC SoHo – Cast-Iron Historic District Designation Report" (August 14, 1873) p. 40
  8. ↑ Sandoval 2007, p. 153.
  9. ↑ Pommer & Winters 2012, p. 69.
  10. 1 2 Dorsey & Devine 1964, pp. 56–57.
  11. ↑ Williamson 1930, pp. 45, 51–3, 54, 60, 63, 71, 152, 162, 211, 212, 261, 273, 294, 304.
  12. ↑ staff (February 28, 1865). "The Hotel Burning Plot". The New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  13. 1 2 3 Roberts, Sam (November 25, 2014). "As Booths Took Stage, South's Plot Against City Fizzled". The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
  14. ↑ Johnson 2010.
  15. ↑ "Before SoHo Was SoHo (Part I): The Lullaby of Broadway". The Soho Memory Project. February 12, 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  16. ↑ Frederick Heppenheimer (d. 1876) (1855). "St. Nicholas-Hotel Broadway, N. Y.". Museum of the City of New York, Lithograph & printed by F. Heppenheimer, 22 North William St. N.Y. Published by W. Stephenson & Co. 252 Broadway. Retrieved December 4, 2015.

Sources

External links

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