The box of keys with gold, maroon, green and sky blue nameplates spoke of times past. I could tell not only by their shapes but the brass keys on the ring. Hotels don’t use real keys anymore; these days, we get credit-card-style door cards that slide into computerized readers.
The brown cardboard box was heavy with keys, and I wondered if someone had intentionally collected them or just brought them home as souvenirs from a vacation, business or weekend trip to the country’s most exciting city. Several were duplicates, indicating that the traveler had stayed at a few of the hotels more times than others. Good service and good prices, I presume.
The keys were among the most interesting items on the tables at a recent auction, and as soon as I saw them I just had to stop and dig through the box. Judging from their style – and the information stamped on them – they looked be from the 1950s or pre-1960s.
At the time, these were likely not your ritzy top-of-the-line hotels, but ones owned by single or small owners who served up their rooms to folks who could not afford to live large in the big city. I learned later that most were 100-year-old hotels that fell on hard times over the year, were sold, renamed, renovated again and again, but were still around – either as themselves or as something else.
The nameplates were boilerplate – very simple and precise. They were oval shaped, with the names of the hotels, the addresses and room numbers. On the back was a request to drop the key in a mailbox if found on the street or bus station or anywhere else a visitor might lose it.
A few other nameplates merely noted what appeared to be Post Office locations: Grand Central Station, Murray Hill Station, Radio City P.O., Ansonia Station, Times Square Station.
Curious, I Googled some of the hotels to see if they were still around:
West Hotel, 507 West St., cor. Jane Street
I found two mentions of this hotel as the Jane-West Hotel and the Jane, described in wikipedia as a “boutique hotel” at 505-507 West Street. The hotel was built in 1908 as a home for sailors passing through the New York port. It also housed survivors of the Titanic during an inquiry into the cause of the sinking of the ship in 1912. The hotel was later owned by the YMCA and called the Jane West. A New York City landmark, it was renovated in 2008.
Hotel Greenwich, 180 Bleecker St.
Built in 1900,it is now an apartment building.
Hotel Arlington, 18 W. 25th St.
Built in 1901. According to one site, it became a “transient” hotel a few years later. In 1940, it was listed in an article as a hotel for the “economically minded,” with rates at $1.50 a day. It is now Comfort Inn Chelsea.
Hotel Ebony, 142 W. 112th St.
Now the New Ebony Hotel in Harlem. The reviews were not kind. On some websites, it was listed as a hostel.
Cornish Arms Home for Adults, 315 W. 23rd St.
Built in 1926, it later became an apartment building called the Broadmoor. The ballroom was converted to a loft apartment, and the building houses apartments (a one-bedroom was selling for $1.2 million).
Hotel Stratford, 11 E. 32nd St.
Built in 1903 as the Stratford House Apartments and is now a cooperative apartment building. It was described in a 1916 listing of New York hotels and boarding houses as “small, quiet, unpretentious, comfortable,” with single rooms at $2.50 with bath and doubles with bath at $3.50.
Hotel Rio, 132 W. 47th St.
Now the Sanctuary Hotel New York. Built in 1908 and renovated in 2010, it was described on its website as a luxury hotel.
Hotel Orleans, 100 W. 80th St.
Located on the Upper West Side, it is now an apartment building called The Orleans.
Stadium Motor Lodge, Bronx, NY
I believe this is now the Stadium Motor Lodge Transitional Home for homeless men. According to the blog forgotten-ny.com, the New York Yankee players stayed here in the 1960s.
Cavalier Hotel, 200 E. 34h St.
Built as a hotel in 1888, the name Cavalier goes back to the 1940s, according to one site. Now called the New York Budget Inn, it was described on its website as “refurbished budget-priced boutique hotel.” In 1997, federal authorities busted what they called a drug-stash house operating out of the hotel.
Tatham House, 138 E. 38th St.
Built in 1929 as a 12-floor hotel. Now it has coop apartments for sale and rent.
Broadway Central Hotel, 673 Broadway
Described as a magnificent hotel when it was built in 1870, the building nonetheless has a notorious history. Financer James Fisk was shot to death on its winding marble staircase by Edward S. Stokes in 1872. In 1973, the hotel – then named the University Hotel – collapsed, killing four people and injuring more.
The showdown between Fisk – president of Erie Railroad and considered a robber baron – and Stokes erupted over a showgirl named Josie Mansfield who was Fisk’s mistress, according to several accounts. She took a liking to Stokes, and the two of them tried to extort money from Fisk over letters he had sent Josie that referred to his shady business deals. That didn’t work out well for the two of them, and a frustrated Stokes killed Fisk. Stokes served six years in prison for manslaughter.
The shooting was the subject of a 2011 book called “The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield: A Tragedy of the Gilded Age” by H.W. Brands.
The National Baseball League was formed at the hotel in 1876, according to one account. Later, famous theater stars dined there when theaters were built inside the structure. In the late 1960s and 1970s, one of its restaurants, St. Adrian Company, was a gathering place for hippies.
In August 1973, more than 300 people were registered at the hotel when a section of it collapsed onto Broadway. According to newspaper reports, the hotel had been fined for violations.
Bronx Home for the Aged, 799 E. Gunhill Road, Bronx, NY
Listed on the web as Bronxwood Home for the Aged, an assisted living facility.
Lancaster Hotel, Madison Ave. at 38th St.
Built in 1923 as the Midston House, it was renovated in the 1960s and renamed the Lancaster. In 1983, it was modernized and given a new name – the Madison Towers. It is now the Jolly Hotel Madison Towers, part of a chain.
Martinique Hotel, 32nd Street and Broadway
Built in 1910 as an elegant residence building near what was then the Theater District. When the district moved north, the hotel experienced a decline and became a homeless hotel in the 1970s, according to the blog ephermalnewyork.com. The city of New York removed the homeless families in the 1980s. It is now the Radisson Martinique, and is on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of Historic Hotels of America.
The PGA was formed during meetings at the hotel in 1916.
Martha Washington Hotel, 29 E. 29th St.
Built in 1902 and opened in 1903, a 12-story hotel deemed “Exclusively for Women” at a time when women were converging on the city for jobs but with few reputable places to stay. The hotel was also the site of some women-suffrage activities. The hotel opened to men in 1998, although men could apparently always eat in the restaurant.
Do you have stories about these hotels? Tell me about them in the Comments box below.
