The Waldorf Astoria - Part I
As we celebrate the 4th of July and Americana, what better venue to showcase than the Waldorf Astoria Hotel? Family feuds, capitalism, and old money…this building’s got it all!
The original Waldorf Astoria Hotel was not one hotel but two.
The Waldorf Hotel is to the left of Caroline Astor’s mansion. Photo: Mina Rees Library, The Graduate Center, CUNY
William Waldorf Astor opened the Waldorf Hotel in 1893 on the corner of 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue. He built the hotel on the site of his father’s mansion. This was next door to his Aunt Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor’s mansion, so you could imagine she was less than thrilled. At first, it didn't attract many customers because it was considered too far uptown. Imagine society today not wanting to go above 33rd Street! Eventually the hotel gained notoriety through hosting gala charity events.
Caroline Astors’s son, John Jacob Astor IV (who has an ill-fated future thanks to a certain “unsinkable” ship), convinced his mother to move uptown while he constructed the Astor Hotel in place of her mansion.
Cousins Willliam and John soon realized that they should work together for maximum profit and they combined the two hotels through Peacock Alley, an area between the hotels that was mysteriously designed expecting such an outcome.
Here you can see both hotels merged as one. Photo: Library of Congress
Once combined the Waldorf Astoria gained notoriety. The first hotel with complete electricity, private bathrooms and most opulently, a telephone in each room! The hotel hosted many charity events and it became the place to see and be seen.
Photo: NYPL Digital Collection
The beginning of the end and the actual end of the beginning came during the late 1920s. Other hotels such as The Knickerbocker, The St. Regis, and the Savoy had opened up further uptown, which was more fashionable by this time. The Astor Family eventually sold the hotel to developers.
Sometimes developers raze a gorgeous building and replace it with something far less attractive, such as the original Penn Station compared to its current iteration (stay tuned for that newsletter!). But I happen to love The Waldorf Astoria's replacement, the Empire State Building. It gets its name from our state’s nickname, coming from the fact that New York is full of wealth and resources.
Photo: NYPL Digital Collection
Today, The Waldorf Astoria is located on Park Avenue and 49th Street. It’s going through a large-scale condo conversion process and I happened to get a tour last week. Next week on Then & Now I’ll go into detail on that location and what’s happening in the future.
