Roosevelt Hotel (Manhattan)
The Roosevelt Hotel is a former hotel and a shelter for asylum seekers at 45 East 45th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Named in honor of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, the hotel was developed by the New York Central Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and opened in 1924. The 19-story structure was designed by George B. Post & Son with an Italian Renaissance Revival-style facade, as well as interiors that resembled historical American buildings. The Roosevelt Hotel is one of several large hotels developed around Grand Central Terminal as part of Terminal City. Since 2000, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has owned the hotel.
Roosevelt Hotel
The hotel building contains setbacks to comply with the 1916 Zoning Resolution, as well as light courts above the third story on Madison Avenue. The hotel was mostly constructed above Grand Central Terminal's railroad tracks, and different structural frameworks were used in the lower and upper stories. The ground level largely contained stores, and the lobby, dining rooms, and other public rooms were one floor above ground. The third through 18th floors contained 1,025 rooms. When the Roosevelt opened, it contained several novel features, including a kennel for guests' pets, a child-care service, and an in-house doctor.
The Roosevelt Hotel opened on September 22, 1924, and was originally operated by New York United Hotels Inc., a subsidiary of the United Hotels Company. After New York United Hotels went bankrupt in 1934, Roosevelt Hotels Inc. took over the hotel. Hilton Hotels took over management of the Roosevelt in 1943, eventually acquiring full ownership of the hotel, and sold it to the Hotel Corporation of America in 1956 following an antitrust lawsuit. Realty Hotels, a holding company run by the New York Central, took over the hotel in 1964. Paul Milstein acquired the hotel in 1978 and leased the hotel to PIA the following year. PIA and Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud bought the hotel in 2000, and PIA then acquired Prince Faisal's ownership stake. The hotel closed in 2020 due to continued financial losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic; it reopened as a shelter for asylum seekers in 2023.
Site[edit]
The Roosevelt Hotel is at 45 East 45th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.[1] It occupies an entire city block bounded by Madison Avenue to the west, 46th Street to the north, Vanderbilt Avenue to the east, and 45th Street to the south.[2][3] The land lot covers about 43,313 sq ft (4,023.9 m2) with a frontage of 200.83 ft (61.21 m) on either avenue and 215.67 ft (65.74 m) on either street. Nearby buildings include 383 Madison Avenue to the north, 245 Park Avenue to the northeast, the Helmsley Building to the east, the MetLife Building and Grand Central Terminal to the southeast, and the Yale Club of New York City Building to the southeast.[2]
The hotel was built above Grand Central Terminal's underground railroad tracks.[4][5] It was one of several structures built above the railroad tracks during the early 20th century. Other such structures included the Hotel Marguery to the north, the New York Central Building (now Helmsley Building) to the east, and the Yale Club and Biltmore Hotel to the south.[6]
Critical reception[edit]
In the 2000s, a critic for New York magazine wrote of the hotel: "Still, the highlight of the Roosevelt remains the architecture itself."[38] Another critic, writing for Gothamist, said that the lobby "has managed to keep its grandeur. There are chandeliers, massive vases filled with flowers, a grand piano, and detailing you only really see in old architecture—Hilton called it, 'a fine hotel with grand spaces'."[37] After the hotel's bar appeared in season 1, episode 8, of Mad Men, one newspaper described the Roosevelt's bar as "just as cozy and sombre as a place dedicated to illicitness should be".[302] After the Roosevelt became a migrant shelter in 2023, The New York Times described it as "the new Ellis Island" and "a symbol of the huge scale of the migrant crisis and a faltering government response."[303]
Farrell, Morgan G. (November 5, 1924). "The Roosevelt: George B. Post & Sons, Architects the First Capital New York Hotel Under the Zoning Laws". The American Architect and the Architectural Review. Vol. 26, no. 2458. 124683963.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
ProQuest
. Hotel Monthly. Vol. 33, no. 1. January 1925. hdl:2027/mdp.39015023073631.
"Introducing the Roosevelt of New York City"
. Architectural Forum. Vol. 41. December 1924.
"The Roosevelt Hotel, New York"
. Architecture and Building. Vol. 56, no. 11. November 1924.
