Thursday, November 18, 2010

The 1904 Prince George Hotel -- 14 East 28th Street


East 28th Street between 5th and Madison Avenues in 1904 was the perfect location for a posh tourist hotel. Just two blocks north of the Madison Square Garden and close to public transportation it was, as it would be advertised, “convenient but quiet.”

The Prince George Hotel was designed by Howard Greenley who trained under Carrere and Hastings then went on to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His Beaux-Arts training would be reflected in the new hotel.

His 14-story hotel, which would receive a substantial addition to the north in 1912, was built of red brick on a rusticated, two-story limestone base. The terra-cotta and stone façade embellishments were restrained and attractive.

It was on the inside that Greenley pulled out all the stops.




Drawing from a variety of styles and periods, he produced lush public rooms and hallways. The Ladies’ Tea Room, or Palm-Room, featured pastel trellised piers, illuminated glass clusters dripping from faux vines on the arched ceiling, a Rookwood fountain and murals by George Inness, Jr.

The Tap Room

The quaint English Tap Room was rustic and oak-paneled with a beamed ceiling, Windsor chairs and wrought iron light fixtures hanging from chains; while the piece de resistance was the Ballroom. Renaissance-style murals, elaborate plasterwork, herringbone oak floors and 18-foot coffered ceilings exploded in brilliant primary colors touched with gilding.

The Architectural Record of 1905 was impressed.  It used the Prince George to illustrate the proper way to decorate a hotel. Howard Greenley, it said “went about it in the right way.”

“The designers and builders of other apartment hotels in New York City would do well to visit the Prince George Hotel, so as to learn how to combine economy, propriety and good taste in the decoration of such a building,” the Record suggested.

The first hotel in New York City to provide a private bath in every room, the Prince George became a favorite among tourists. While New York society still entertained at the Plaza and the Waldorf-Astoria, the Prince George hosted celebrated names like Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell.

The hotel enjoyed remarkable success throughout most of the 20th Century. Well into the 1960s it was a destination for tourist families attracted by its affordable rates and convenient location. Refurbishing replaced Edwardian furniture with sleek “blonde-modern” pieces and canary-colored upholstered valances matched the draperies.

By the 1970s, however, the hotel had fallen on hard times and the aging building became a welfare hotel in the 1980s -- before long one of the most notorious and dangerous in the city. Prostitution, drug dealings, muggings and other crimes rooted at the hotel forced every business in the area, with the exception of one bank branch, to close.

At one point The New York Times referred to the Prince George as “hell’s embassy in Manhattan.” On July 17, 1988 a three-year old boy was severely beaten at 3:00 am by his guardian, a 44-year old female resident, when he refused to panhandle for her. It was the second time in four months that a child was beaten while involved in panhandling by an adult staying at the hotel

Residents reacted with resignation. “Bad stuff is always happening in there,” one woman told The Times. “They should just shut that place down.”

Another resident then sighed, “Then there’d be a lot of homeless people. Where they going to go? What they going to do? They ain’t got no choice. That’s the problem.”

Children of the 500 homeless families housed there, called “hotel kids,” nicknamed rooms “the crack room” and “the pot room.” The glorious Main Lounge was painted white and used as a basketball court. Graffiti covered the hallways.

Finally, in 1990, the savaged hotel was emptied of its residents, closed down and abandoned.

After it sat empty for seven years, the Prince George was purchased in 1996 by Common Ground Community, a ground-breaking not-for-profit organization bent on restoring dignity and livelihoods to the homeless, mentally ill, and people with AIDS. The hotel had severely suffered.

The on-site project manager, Brian Keenan, compared the former showplace to “a haunted house.” Aside from the cosmetic damage of graffiti misuse, there was substantial water damage. Restoration experts Beyer Blinder Belle were brought in to oversee the restoration of the public rooms and renovation of the hotel to residential units.

At a cost of $39 million in State, Federal, City and private money, and with help from organizations like the Preservation League of New York State and New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Prince George became home to 416 efficiency apartments for low-income workers, earning between $13 and $30 thousand a year, as well as special needs residents. When opened in 2000, it included a computer room, art studio, offices for social workers, a clinic, and common lounges. Job training counselors, health services, psychologists and therapists were provided to “make it easy for people to succeed.”

The restored Ballroom, formerly the Main Lounge - photo courtesy princegeorgeballroom.org

In 2004 restoration of the nearly 5000-square foot Main Lounge -- now called the Ballroom -- began. Staff from the Alpha Workshops employed and trained people with HIV/AIDS to help in the restoration of the severely water-damaged plaster and paint. Students from the Brooklyn High School for the Arts also assisted in return for training.

Meanwhile, students from the Parsons School tackled the former Hunt Room. Here the devastation to Greenley’s robust English-style interior was so complete that restoration was impossible. They group designed and constructed an entry foyer and gallery space, now the World Monuments Fund Gallery for special exhibitions.

The restored Tea Room - photo courtesy princegeorge.org

Howard Greenley’s beautifully-restored public spaces are leased for private and corporate functions, generating revenue for the Common Ground Community’s efforts -- $800,000 in annual rents from the Ballroom, alone. Completed in 2005, the renovation is one of the most remarkable examples of recycling historic properties in the city.

19 comments:

  1. A reader wrote:

    Hi,

    I was 21 when I stayed at the Prince George Hotel on my first ever visit to New York in September 1979.

    We were a party of about 15 Brits camping across America in a Minivan, our final destination after leaving L.A. a month earlier was the Prince George.

    Via Google Earth I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane to recall what it looked like, it was then that I stumbled on your page.

    Thanks for the info re the history of the place.

    it is such a shame that it fell into disrepair/disrepute shortly after I’d left but great to see it has been restored to it’s former glory.

    Enjoyed reading that!

    Cheers,

    Steve O’Donovan
    Cardiff,
    Wales, UK

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    1. Happy memories Steve. I also stayed there prior to a camping trip leaving from NYC to LA and back again in the summer or '79. Checked in on my own late at night after a flight from LHR, my first trip abroad. Scary but for a naiive 21 year old Brit, what an adventure! Stayed there for a night before the return flight home but experience wasn't so exciting .. six weeks on, I was a seasoned traveller .. lol.

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  2. A dear friend of mine lives at the Prince George and I found the main room on the main level to be quite interesting in its history and beauty. This once hotel must have a resting place for many wealthy people in its hayday!! My friend's efficiency is tight in size but suits his living purpose.
    Was happy to read that organizations were interested in restoring such a once grand hotel.
    Judy R.

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  3. We stayed here all through the late '60's and '70's. My father was a radio station manager in Connecticut, and got "duebills" to stay at the Prince George for free. Many happy memories of my younger days. I remember the Belmore Cafeteria right nearby which had great French Toast and all the New York cabbies used to frequent. My older brother spent his wedding night at The Prince George! That was before he started making money. Great old place.

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  4. just found a photo of a retirement dinner for a Mr. Reginald Claris dated January 17, 1957 in the dining room at the Prince George Hotel. I believe he retired as a ticket seller in Penn Station. quite an elegant photo.

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  5. Stayed a the Prince George for a week in 1963 while attending the Charles of the Ritz School of Advanced Hairstyling located at 149 Madison Ave. I was 19 at the time and had a great time in the Big Apple

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  6. Stayed here for six weeks my first time in NY. Great view of the Empire State lights at night. I must have just missed the downturn. I was there in summer 1980 had a great time. Rooms were great. Affordable clean pleasant staff, mostly Trinidadian, a real treat by NY standards. Vaulted ceilings. Super hot shower and huge plush towels. We came as a group of twelve professional photographers throughout the country and we've all been. Big Apple boosters. Like the saying goes, "The rest of the country is just a suburb of New York!!"

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  7. It's good to see the hotel alive and well again i was once considered a "hotel kid" I lived there during the late 80's when the homeless rate was at a all time high but my family got out we did well for ourselves and I can say it was an experience living there but I'm glad it's better then before

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  8. I stayed there about 6 months in 1982 when I was working in NYC for AT&T.Glad it is still there. DES..Canton Ga.

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  9. My God! I used to live there. I'd stay for few months just to get away. I lived in Brooklyn and worked in the city. Young dreamer, I would sometimes leave my mom's apartment to play the rich girl on Fifth Avenue. I would take a cab to work, come by cab from 17th street and 6th Ave just to spend my lunch hour, watching TV. The doorman always got a tip and I usually gave him $1 for the paper. It was a nice hotel. Did I use those yellow cabs? There were times, I would use them to take a quick visit to Mama's for her delicious rice and beans. Those were the days. I was just running away from love, from the guy who could not disclose his sentiments, even though, he was visiting me for years. I was young, chaste and romantically stupid. Fifty years later, the guy still occupies my heart. Memory lane! And New York was much better. The days when I could just walk in, buy a ticket to watch a show at Radio City. I'm today a Freelance writer. I dream of becoming a Nobel Prize winner. Wow! My novel, which I spent time writing at the Prince George came out last year. "WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE, JESSICA?"

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  10. Just come across a wooden coat hanger with the text 'PRINCE GEORGE HOTEL 14E 28TH ST. N.Y.C.' in my wardrobe! No idea where it came from - I live in England & am not aware of anyone in my family who has been there!

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  11. I was one of those “hotel kids.” You left out the story of the little girl I knew who was murdered while living there, Myer Figueroa. Her death devastated my family because we knew her well. We don’t all stay in poverty as expected. I am a Registered Nurse with a Masters degree, and I also do well in the stock market during it’s ups and downs. As good as picking them as Warren Buffett. My mother had 6 kids, and all of us are doing well today. Upper middle class

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  12. Got out of the Army in 71 and wanted to attend classes at the school of visual arts...took a bus to NYC and was just a green kid, never having been to the city before. Met a traveler on the bus who lived in Brooklyn and offered to help me get acquainted to the city.I think I had found the hotel somehow before making the trip as I needed to save$$... I only stayed there for 3 to 4 days but it was quite clean and oddly Victorian in style. I remember the bathroom had porcelain handles on the sink with a black and white checkered floor. One window that looked out to a building facing the window 20 ft away. Never went back to NYC...couldn't afford to live there, and couldn't afford art school. Just a poor artist that missed a good opportunity...

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  13. omg I have to say that I Praise God for blessing me and my 2 lil sons to reside here in 1986-88 it was all elegance for us..we didnt side with the negative..we lived here as if we were wealthy..our room was 542 clean decent elegant ..it was an experience I will always remember..and I thank you so much ..God Bless Prince George Hotel����❤❤❤��

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    1. I was there as a teen with my sister and my dad, In late 1985 Im very happy were never experienced such terrible things as it says on the article.

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  14. In the early 70's I would often come by the hotel just to sit in the lobby and enjoy the feel of old-time elegance while observing the interesting variety of fellow loungers.

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  15. My story is not like the others but it’s real. I had an Uncle, Uncle Norman Gene Andrews who stayed there in the 1950s during a business conference with The Addressograph/ Multigraph Corp. He did have a room mate. Someone how Uncle z Norman fell to his death off a 6th floor fire escape. No one knows why, but his hands showed that he tried to hold on. He was a wonderful man with wife and young son. He had a successful career in military before this. It’s just an odd story. He left behind 14 siblings back in Indiana

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  16. My time at the hotel was under the welfare times. I can't say they were bad. There was a sense of community but at the same time I was very young. I was happy with my family in our tiny room amid all the bad stuff that happened around us. I'm happy the building is being put to good use.

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