Luxor Hotel (New York City)

Last updated

The Luxor Hotel in New York City was built by the D.P.R. Construction Company and opened in February 1925. The establishment is located at 121-127 West 46th Street in Manhattan. Built for $1,250,000, the structure has eighty-four guest rooms with a large bath establishment. The baths operated in connection with the hotel dormitories. [1]

Hotel history

David Podolsky, a pioneer in the Zionist movement, was president of the Luxor Hotel. He came to the United States in 1896 and assisted in forming Chovevei Zion, the original Zionist group. [2]

On November 28, 1932 the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court reversed a ruling for plaintiff and former Schenectady, New York fireman, James Eagan. Earlier Eagan sued and won $32,5000 from the Luxor Hotel and Baths for personal injuries he sustained on December 5, 1930. He claimed that the hotel was negligent in posting no warning signs to indicate that the pool was only partially filled, at the time he dived in. Pool attendants called as defense witnesses testified that Eagan disregarded warning signs which were posted as well as verbal warnings from employees not to dive from a high platform, due to the shallowness of the pool water. He persisted and was injured. [3]

In 1934, Soviet rezident and Great Illegal Valentin Markin received head wounds in the Luxor Baths from which he died shortly thereafter. Mayor Abraham Beame called for the resignation of Seymour Durst from the Mayor's Midtown Citizens Committee in March 1976. Durst, head of the Durst Organization, a real estate firm, had recently sold the Luxor Hotel to a group which wanted to convert the building into an elaborate massage and prostitution establishment. The Citizens Committee was set up in 1975 to rid the Midtown (Manhattan) area of pornography and prostitution. [4]

Related Research Articles

New York Biltmore Hotel

The New York Biltmore Hotel was a luxury hotel in New York City that opened in 1913. It was one of three palatial hotels built as part of the Terminal City development around Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. The others were the Commodore Hotel, and the Roosevelt Hotel. The building was gutted by developers in 1981, with predominantly its steel frame remaining. The current building has been known as Bank of America Plaza, and more recently as 335 Madison.

Platos Retreat

Plato's Retreat was a swingers' club catering to heterosexual couples and bisexual women. From 1977 until 1985 it operated in two locations in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The first was the former location of the Continental Baths, a gay sex club that was briefly in fashion with the chic and culturally adventurous, such as Bette Midler.

Hotel Carter (Manhattan)

The Hotel Carter was a hotel located near Times Square in Manhattan, New York City. The building is 24 stories tall, and at its opening, had 1,000 rooms, but was later downsized to 700 rooms. Opened in 1930 as the Dixie Hotel, it originally extended from 43rd Street to 42nd Street, although the wing abutting 42nd Street has since been demolished. The hotel has changed ownership numerous times throughout its history. In October 1976, it was renamed the Hotel Carter in an attempt to rehabilitate its image. The hotel closed and was offered for sale in 2014.

The Weylin Hotel was a hotel at 527 - 531 Madison Avenue and 40 - 54 East 54th Street in New York City. It was on the southeast corner of 54th Street. The structure was sixteen stories tall and opened in March 1921. The building fronted sixty-one feet on Madison Avenue and one hundred forty-eight feet on 54th Street. It contained 125,000 square feet (11,600 m2) of space.

The Dauphin Hotel was an establishment located on the west block front of Broadway between 66th Street and 67th Street. In 1958, the ballroom of the hotel was behind Julia Murphy's Bar. The Dauphin Hotel was demolished as part of the excavation for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. By 1964, the site was taken by the Empire Mutual Insurance Group building. This edifice also occupied the space where the Marie Antoinette Hotel previously stood. The area is currently occupied by a variety of retail stores including Raymour & Flanigan, Zara, and Pottery Barn, as well as a residential building.

Olcott Hotel

The Olcott Hotel is an establishment on West 72nd Street in New York City's Upper West Side. It was built by the Lapidus Engineering Company beginning in late 1925. The edifice was one of a number of structures constructed at the time from Central Park West to Columbus Avenue on 72nd Street, in Manhattan. The Fairfield Hotel was another building going up concurrently. Its builder was Louis Israelson and Associates. The Olcott Hotel was sixteen stories when it was completed. It opened in 1930.

Allerton Hotel for Women

The Allerton Hotel for Women, today known as Renaissance New York Hotel 57, is a hotel located at 130 East 57th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is a seventeen-story brick, limestone, and terra cotta building designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon in 1920. It was built on the southwest corner of Lexington Avenue and 57th Street by the Allerton House Company at a cost of $700,000. It originally had stores on its ground floor. The hotel intended to accommodate six hundred business and professional women and also shelter young girls. When completed in 1923, the Allerton Hotel had room for four hundred tenants. Its occupancy was filled prior to completion and there was a long waiting list. After opening it was so popular that another establishment of its kind was anticipated.

Marbridge Building

The Marbridge Building is an office establishment at 1328 Broadway, on the east side of Sixth Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets in Herald Square, Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1909, an 11-story building, utilized in part by Rogers Peet. Until October 1910 it stood opposite the Alpine apartment house, which was at the northeast corner of Broadway and 33rd Street. The Alpine and old stores between 33rd and 34th Streets were demolished to make room for the $5,000,000 Hotel McAlpin near the end of 1910. On the other side of Broadway were located the Macy's Herald Square and Saks Incorporated stores, with the Gimbels store just below.

The Prudence Building, or Prudence Bonds Building, was a fourteen-story edifice at the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 43rd Street, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was the headquarters of the Prudence Bonds Corporation, opening in October 1923. Stores on the street level were leased to affluent shops. The banking floor was a close likeness of the Bankers Trust Company building at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The Bank of Manhattan was accorded a 21-year lease and moved its headquarters from 40 Wall Street. The building was demolished in 2016 and the site is now the location of One Vanderbilt.

Bretton Hall (Manhattan)

Bretton Hall is a twelve-story residential building at 2350 Broadway, spanning from West 85th to 86th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City.

The Silk Centre was an area of business property, composed of buildings and lofts, which opened in Manhattan, in 1924. It was adjacent to a car-barn site, numerous clothing firms, and advertising agents located within a block or two of this corner. Harper & Brothers was also situated on East 33rd Street.

The Gunther Building was a seven-story commercial edifice in Manhattan located at 391 - 393 Fifth Avenue, between 36th Street and 37th Street. It occupied a plot 41.8 feet (12.7 m) on Fifth Avenue by 111.8 feet (34.1 m) in depth. Built in 1909, the establishment conformed in architecture, appointments, and construction with the Tiffany and Company Building, which adjoined it. The latter structure was designed by Stanford White and was constructed by Tiffany & Company in 1903, at the corner of the block on 37th Street.

Harding Building was an edifice at 147–151 West 35th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Six stories tall, it was 66.8 by 100 feet and stood opposite the R.H. Macy & Company building. It adjoined the northeast corner of 7th Avenue (Manhattan). Formerly the Hotel Sturtevant, it had been owned by Edwin Gould and associates until May 1910. It was remodeled by Maurice and Wolf Forman in 1921 and made into a business building. The Harding Building was purchased by new owners in July 1923. They bought the building for investment purposes.

Hale Building Building in Manhattan, New York

The Hale Building is an office structure which opened in 1927 at 11 East 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Fred T. Ley & Company built the edifice and Shreve & Lamb were its architects. It was owned by the Eleven East 44th Street Corporation. Hale Building is significant as an important residence for offices on the Lower East Side during the late 1920s and the Great Depression era.

Hotel Pierrepont was an establishment located at 43 West 32nd Street between Broadway and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. Completed in 1906, the building was twelve stories tall, made of fireproof brick and stone. It had a cellar and a subcellar. It had one hundred seventy rooms, with single rooms and suites, and ninety bathrooms. The edifice measured fifty-nine feet by ninety-eight and nine tenths feet. It was located adjacent to the Rogers Peet building. Hotel Pierrepont is important to the history of Manhattan in the early 20th century. It is memorable for its prime location.

Hotel Kenmore Hall is a 22-story single room occupancy hotel located at 145 East 23rd Street in the Gramercy section of Manhattan, designed by architect Maurice Deutsch and constructed in 1927. Author Nathanael West lived and worked at the hotel as a night manager in the early years after the hotel opened; one of West's real-life experiences at the hotel inspired the incident between Romola Martin and Homer Simpson that would later appear in The Day of the Locust (1939). West allowed friends like Edmund Wilson, Erskine Caldwell, S. J. Perelman and Maxwell Bodenheim free room and meals. Dashiell Hammett finished The Maltese Falcon here.

Universal Hotel may refer to three different establishments of the late 19th century and early 20th century Manhattan, New York. There was a Universal Hotel at 352 Bowery. Another lodging, called Morgan's Universal Hotel, operated in New York City during the 1890s. It was located 75 Clarkson Street, currently the address of Mystique Gentleman's Club. A third establishment named Universal Hotel was located at 6th Avenue (Manhattan) and the northwest corner of 28th Street (Manhattan). It was altered in 1909, expanding to a five-story hotel and store. The alteration was performed by architect B.W. Devitan, at a cost of $15,000.

1717 Broadway Hotel skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

1717 Broadway is a skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. At 750 feet (230 m) high, it is the tallest hotel in North America. The building contains two hotels, the Courtyard New York Manhattan/Central Park below the 35th floor and the Residence Inn New York Manhattan/Central Park on floors 35 and higher, with a total of 639 rooms. The glass-clad building is on the northwest corner of 54th Street and Broadway.

Savoy-Plaza Hotel Demolished hotel in Manhattan, New York

The Savoy-Plaza Hotel was a 33-story hotel overlooking Central Park at Fifth Avenue and East 59th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1927 and was demolished in 1965.

Benjamin Winter Sr. was a real estate developer in New York City and founder of Winter Incorporated. Winter served as president of the American Federation of Polish Jews.

References

  1. A Bumper Crop Of New Hotels Erected Throughout Country, New York Times, January 11, 1925, pg. RE1.
  2. David Podolsky Dies; A Leader In Zionism, New York Times, December 23, 1945, pg. 17.
  3. Decides For Luxor Hotel, New York Times, November 29, 1932, pg. 32.
  4. Durst Asked to Quit His Cleanup Post, New York Times, March 12, 1976, pg. 36.

Coordinates: 40°45′28″N73°59′00″W / 40.75784°N 73.98331°W / 40.75784; -73.98331