The 1906 Arts Club Studio Building - 119 East 19th Street

The National Arts Club was formed in March 1898 and incorporated the following year.  At a time when most collectors and dealers still looked to Europe for artworks, the club sought to "stimulate and guide" the "artistic sense of the American people."   It would provide exhibition space not only for the fine arts, but for applied and industrial arts, so crucial for the livelihood of emerging artists.

The National Arts Club was composed not merely of artists, but of architects and supporting businessmen.  Its first president was esteemed architect George B. Post.  The group acquired and renovated space at No. 37 West 34th Street as its clubhouse.

In 1905 the need for more space prompted the members to relocate.  The Record & Guide noted the club "has outgrown its present accommodations, both in membership and business.  It has a membership of about 1,300 and the facilities of its galleries, reading rooms, and restaurant are taxed to the limit."

On March 24 the New-York Tribune reported that the National Arts Club had bought "the Samuel J. Tilden house, Nos. 14 and 15 Gramercy Park, one of the most famous dwelling house landmarks in this city."  A week later the newspaper added "A new and ingenious combination is proposed by the club.  While there have been clubs before, studio buildings and rooms for organization work, never before, it is asserted, has there been a proposition to combine them in a way that will be mutually beneficial."

Included in the club's purchase was Tilden's expansive gardens in the rear which opened onto East 19th Street.  "It is the purpose of the organizers...to erect a studio building, with all modern conveniences, and at the same time have in it direct connection with the gallery and an art club in the membership of which are to be found many of the city's best known connoisseurs," said the article.

The Arts Club Studio building would include clubrooms for "affiliated societies," exhibition space, and artist studios.  "The studio building in 19th-st. will be so placed as to have the north studio windows toward Gramercy Park.  Thus the artist will be assured that his light is forever protected."

Not surprisingly, George B. Post & Son was given the commission to design the Arts Club Studio.  On October 29, 1905 the New-York Tribune updated its readers on the progress.  The estimated cost of the project, including construction and property costs, was $500,000--or about $15 million today.

"The studio building...will be a fireproof structure, seven stories [sic] high, with a mezzanine floor.  It will have a gothic entrance adorned with an arch and columns, and the facade will be of sculptured Belleville gray rock at the first story and ornamental brick with terra cotta trimmings above."  Because the northern-facing studios sat higher the former Tilden mansion, their residents could be assured their natural light was protected.

As construction neared completion on July 22, 1906 the New-York Tribune explained "The 19th street structure, which will be known as the Arts Club Studios...contains twelve large studio apartments, comprising studio, sitting room and library, with mezzanine bedrooms and bath, six smaller studio apartments, with studio, alcove and bath, ten bachelor apartments and fifteen single rooms, most of which are rented under long leases."  The newspaper predicted it would be "a landmark in the neighborhood of Gramercy Park."

New-York Tribune, July 22, 1906 (copyright expired)

The Arts Studio Building and the renovated Tilden mansion were formally opened on November 8, 1906.  By then, according to the New-York Tribune, the financial outlay for the combined project had reached "nearly $750,000."

The upper floors of George B. Post & Son's 15-story building were relatively unadorned.  Faced in brown-brick, the decoration relied mostly on a stone band course above the 13th floor and an elaborate cornice.   The architects focused their decorative attention on the neo-Gothic stone base.  Here the entrance sat within a pointed Gothic arch.  Flanking paneled piers were adorned with Gothic tracery and protruding gargoyles.  Directly above the entrance an arcade of pointed arches was topped by a deeply carved frieze of somewhat humorous faces peering from among swirling leaves.

The Arts Club Studio Building immediately staged exhibitions as the studios filled with artists and the clubrooms with arts-related groups.  Among the first group to take space was the National Society of Craftsmen, which had its own exhibition space and galleries.  The 1913 American Art Directory listed it along with the National Arts Club and Municipal Art Society at the 19th Street address.

They were joined by the American Institute of Graphic Arts before World War I.  The conflict diverted the focus of all the groups in the Arts Club Studio building as they turned to supporting the war effort.  In the spring of 1918, for instance, the American Institute of Graphic Arts spearheaded the "war savings stamps poster competition" the object of which was "to obtain striking posters and cards for use in promoting the sale of thrift stamps," according to the New-York Tribune on April 14.

As submissions poured in, the posters were exhibited in the Arts Club Studio.  At the time of the Tribune's article more than 1,000 had been received, some of them from America's top artists, including Maxfield Parrish, Charles Dana Gibson, photographer Clarence H. White, and Hilda Belcher.

The post-World War I years saw artists like Susan Ricker Knox, Ethel Wright, Jean Hafer and Arthur S. Allen living here.  Allen was president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and was here as late as 1921.  In the building at the same time was Joseph Howland Hunt, son of famous architect Richard Morris Hunt and partner with his brother, Richard, in the architectural firm of Hunt & Hunt.  He was, as well, the president of the Municipal Art Society.

Susan Ricker Knox's The Conspirators was most likely done in her studio here.

Among the ongoing stream of exhibitions in the Arts Club Studio building was the 1922 show of The Fireside Industries of Berea College.  The New York Herald announced that it included "bedspreads and a variety of weavings, as well as a large collection of baskets made by the mountaineers."  And in 1928 the National Arts Club mounted its "Humorists' Exhibition."  The Evening Telegram explained on February 18 that its object was "to show what the artists of New York are doing in the way of making fun for the public or in the way of having fun themselves."

During the 1920's and '30's other groups took space in the building, including the League of American Artists, the City Gardens Club, and the National Council for the Protection of Roadside Beauty.

The last quarter of the century saw problems emerging.  The Gramercy Park building suffered serious neglect.  A 1999 study recommended a $2 million stabilization for the facade.  And the problem extended into the Arts Club Studio Building.  In 2004 frustrated members of the Arts Club reached out to city agencies, newspapers and preservation groups for help.  In a letter to city governmental agencies the members complained that the then-president of the club, O. Aldon James and his brother John were using many of the apartments as storage.  With no maintenance, ceilings collapsed from water damage and studios were piled high in trash.

Aldon stepped down in June 2011 and renovations began on the apartments.  A spokesman said that they would no longer be necessarily restricted to artists, "but the people who will really want to rent them will be those with a true appreciation for the history of New York.”

The initials of the National Arts Club appear above the delightful carvings.

Today George B. Post & Sons' eye-catching neo-Gothic facade is little changed.  The tongue-in-cheek faces which poke out of the leafy frieze are too often overlooked by rushing passersby.

photographs by the author

The 1924 Roosevelt Hotel -- Madison Ave at 45th Street

Irving Underhill photographed the newly-completed building in 1924 -- from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

On midnight, January 16, 1920 the selling and manufacture of intoxicants became illegal in the United States.  The arrival of Prohibition, which some thought would reduce crime and domestic violence, and enhance living conditions for all proved just the opposite.  The enormous increase in illegal activities would not be noticeable for some time; but the effect on millions who were suddenly without jobs was immediate.

In Manhattan bartenders, brewery and distillery workers, waitresses, liquor store employees and sommeliers were suddenly out of work.  And Prohibition dealt a heavy and unexpected blow to the cash flow of the city’s grand hotels whose wine cellars were stocked with expensive and rare vintages.

Within months hotels failed.  On July 4, 1920 the New-York Tribune noted that three of New York’s resident hotels, including the Holland House and 20-year old Manhattan House, had shut their doors.   One year after Prohibition went into effect John Jacob Astor closed his elegant Knickerbocker Hotel.

The Tiffany Studios Building stood at Madison Avenue and 45th Street -- photograph by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

And so it was perhaps startling to some when on September 2, 1922 the New-York Tribune announced that a $6 million hotel, 18 stories tall, was being designed by the well-known architectural firm of George B. Post & Sons.

Two months later, on November 25, 1922 both the height and the cost had risen.  The Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide reported that demolition had started on the massive brick and stone Tiffany Studios Building on Madison Avenue at 45^th Street where a “palatial hostelry, to be known as the Roosevelt Hotel” was to be built.  The structure had sprouted two more floors and the cost was now estimated at $10 million.

George B. Post & Sons released its rendering in November 1922 (copyright expired)

The project was spearheaded by a syndicate known as the United Hotels Company of America.  The Record & Guide reported on the projected 1,107 rooms and baths, “several spacious restaurants and private dining rooms.” 

Engulfing the entire block from Madison to Vanderbilt Avenue and from 45^th to 46^th Streets, it took advantage of the site directly over the Grand Central tracks.  The Guide noted it “will have an entrance from the Grand Central Terminal, which will be a great advantage to incoming and outgoing railroad passengers.”  In addition, the New-York Tribune noted on November 19 that the hotel was to have “a series of rooms which will be reserved for persons who wish to remain overnight only or for a few hours while waiting for train connections.”

The planners included stores and leased office space along the sidewalk level.  It was an unusual move and according to the 1987 New York 1930, Architecture and Urbanism Between The Two World Wars, was intended to compensate for the lost revenues caused by Prohibition.

Less than five months into construction, the hotel’s leasing agent, Douglas L. Elliman & Co. reported that already more than half of the store space was rented.  Among the “important” leases was signed by the Knox Hat Company, whose upscale store traditionally provided headwear for United States Presidents.

The hotel's massive size was captured in a postcard (copyright expired)

Just under two years after construction began, the Roosevelt Hotel neared completion.  On September 14, 1924 The New York Times noted that, once again, the height and the cost had changed—now 22 stories tall and costing $12 million.  The exterior of the massive brick and stone structure melded with the Adamesque architecture of the other buildings of what was then called “the Grand Central Group;” and later known as “Terminal City.”

But inside, George B. Post & Sons drew from colonial America.  The 42^nd Street vestibule contained a replica of the doorway into St. Paul’s Chapel downtown, built in 1764.  It opened into a lobby dripping with American references.   The architects used Homewood, an 1809 Baltimore mansion, and the New York City Hall for inspiration here.  Iron panels flanking the stairs were copies of those in City Hall.  The iron balcony railings were taken from an old mansion on Irving Place, and the iron rails in the arcades were copied from leaded glass sidelights of various colonial American doorways.

Reproduction Chippendale chairs and colonial details added to the historical motif.

For the 20-foot wide paneled lounge facing Madison Avenue, inspiration was taken from a room of the colonial house in Coventry, Connecticut installed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The New York Times added “A handsome and ornamental office desk screen is based on the original in the Hamilton House (1812), Philadelphia.  ‘Homewood’ provided the designs for the cornice in the ‘working lobby’ and also in the mezzanine balcony.”

Other colonial homes used for inspiration were the 18^th century Octagon House in Washington D. C., Kenmore, a 1753 Virginia mansion, the 1800 Gordon House in Savannah, and the Charleston, South Carolina Gibbs House built in 1752.

A postcard presented an elegant lobby.

The Roosevelt Hotel, named for the late President Theodore Roosevelt, was formally opened on September 22, 1924.  Although The New York Times remarked the following day that “It is equipped with the latest devices for service;” its planners cleverly did not target the millionaires who came and went at the Waldorf-Astoria or Plaza Hotels; but businessmen and visiting families.

When Theodore Roosevelt died, political cartoonist J. N. “Ding” Darling published a cartoon entitled the “Long, Long Trail.”  It depicted the former President in his Rough Rider outfit, waving good-bye as he rode off into the clouds.  On December 8, 1925 a bronze reproduction of the cartoon, four and one-half by six feet, was unveiled in the main lobby of the hotel in the presence of several hundred people, including many of the Roosevelt family.

Earlier that year the Roosevelt Hotel had added an innovative concept—a radio station atop the hotel.  The first transmission from station WRNY was broadcast on the evening of June 12, 1925.  And while the schedule included the expected musical programs “in which operatic singers and Broadway stars” took part, there was also a weekly educational program for high school students interested in science and technology.

On that first night, the venerable politician and attorney Chauncey M. Depew spoke to the children.  He began saying that many of the youthful audience “have made their own radio machines in whole or in part.”  He echoed the feelings of many 21^st century seniors who feel overwhelmed by the whirl of new technology.  “The boys and girls of today have so many opportunities for their mental and spiritual advancement, which never existed before, that we older people wonder how we got on at all.”

He then went on to proclaim that technological advances just might make life worse than in the good old day.  He pointed out that the greatest thinkers of history—Plato, Socrates and Aristotle—“had none of these modern wonders.”  And the greatest orators and artists “are still unapproachable by our times.”

The youngsters listening may have had more hope when Dr. Lee De Forest took the mic.  He was the inventor of the modern vacuum tube and the “phonofilm,” the new motion picture film that included sound.  Instead, he tossed cold water on their anticipation of television.

“Mr. De Forest said that the intricate difficulties which must be overcome before moving pictures in the home by radio are an every-night occurrence, are such that ‘most of us will not live to see this miracle,’” reported The New York Times.  “He also declared that he knew of no practical method of eliminating static disturbance.”

Although Queen Marie of Rumania stopped over at the Roosevelt Hotel in October 1926; she was the exception among royalty and heads of state.  Instead the hotel played host to politicians (many of whom ran their election campaigns from offices here), entertainment celebrities, and athletes.  It was also, interestingly, the favorite of the class of new American heroes—aviators.

Typical of the events held in the Roosevelt in the 1920s was the star-studded 1926 gala benefit given by the Authors’ League of America.  The ballroom was filled with luminaries from the stage and society, as well as “well-known persons of letters.”  Authors like Edna Ferber rubbed shoulders with Lulu Belle who was currently playing Lorelei Lee on Broadway in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  And cartoonist Rube Goldberg did a skit with Harry Herschfield and Milt Gross.

Another was the February 1927 dinner for Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne hosted by alumni.  During the dinner he announced he was considering a game between Notre Dame and the University of Hawaii during the 1927 Christmas season.

What would be not only a hotel tradition, but a national one, began when Guy Lombardo and his orchestra first performed at the Roosevelt Grill on October 3, 1929.  The Royal Canadians would continue playing “the sweetest music this side of Heaven” here for three decades.  The music was transmitted live into the guest rooms via radio.

The annual New Year’s Eve broadcast from the ballroom which featured the orchestra playing Auld Lang Syne became synonymous with New Year’s Eve for families across the nation.  An up-and-coming bandleader, Lawrence Welk, got his start by filling in for Lombardo and the Royal Canadians when they took their summer breaks to play on Long Island each year.

In the 1920s and ‘30s, it would not be unusual to see celebrated aviators like Charles A. Lindberg, Richard E. Byrd or Amelia Earhart Putnam at a dinner in the Roosevelt Hotel.  But on the night of April 9, 1931 they were here not as guests of honor; but to pay tribute to a weatherman.

The next day The New York Times reported “Aviators who have crossed the Atlantic in heavier-than-air machines gathered last night for dinner at the Roosevelt Hotel to pay tribute to Dr. James H. Kimball of the New York office of the United States Weather Bureau as the man who, more than any other, had been responsible for the success of their flights.”

Nationally-famous journalist and newscaster Lowell Thomas was toastmaster and the room was filled with a who’s-who of the aeronautical field.  In addition to Lindberg, Byrd and Earhart were Clarence Chamberlin, Bernt Balchen, Frank E. Courtney, Armand Lotti and James Fitzmaurice, among others.  A message from President Herbert Hoover was read.

The system of underground tunnels linking the hotel to the train station and to other locations proved to be a convenience not only to guests, but to a criminal on July 31, 1931.  Mary Gilmartin had been the hotel’s cashier for several years.  Employees received their pay in cash and every afternoon at around 2:30 she would carry a tin box containing the day’s payroll for the afternoon and evening shifts from the paymaster’s office on the second floor to the cashier’s office on the main floor.  In the Depression years, the $5,000 payroll, in the neighborhood of $78,000 in 2015, was a tempting target.

The 27-year old woman picked up the box that afternoon, as always, and headed for the elevator.  Sitting in the corridor was a young man who twirled his brown felt hat on his finger.  Mary paid little attention to him as she pressed the elevator button.   She was suddenly attacked and the man fled with the box into the fire stairs eight feet away.

Mary ran back to the paymaster’s office and signaled all the watchmen at the hotel entrances.  The fire entrance led to a passageway under Vanderbilt Avenue, another under the main entrance to the hotel, and also to a corridor leading to an employee’s exit on 46^th Street.

The crook, who apparently had scouted Mary’s routine for several days and had his escape route well planned, slipped past all the watchmen.  Detectives surmised he had been an employee at one time.  The robber, about 25 years old, successfully made off with the unmarked bills.

Happy days were anticipated by the hotel industry when the end of Prohibition became imminent.  The Roosevelt Hotel planned a festive “Funeral of Old Man Prohibition” at “a repeal ball in costume.”  The New York Times reported on December 5, 1933 that already more than 1,200 reservations had been booked.

“At the stroke of midnight, twelve models will trumpet reveille, a burial ceremony will conclude with the opening of the casket supposed to contain the remains of Prohibition, which will let out, according to the announcement, ‘a beautiful female figure symbolic of the returning spirit of Bacchus.’”

But the repeal of Prohibition came a few months too late for the Roosevelt Hotel.  The Depression had taken its toll and for some time its management had denied rumors that the hotel was in trouble.  But in 1934 the rumored became fact when the Roosevelt was put into receivership and the courts approved a $25,000 bid on the hotel that had cost $12 million.

At mid-century, the Rough Rider Cocktail lounge featured palomino-printed upholstery and frescoes of Roosevelt's Rough Riders.

Conrad Hilton purchased the Roosevelt Hotel in 1943, calling it “a fine hotel.”  The Hilton chain was forced to sell it 13 years later, in April 1956, as part of an Anti-trust suit filed by the Government.

Although the Roosevelt Hotel continued to be a favorite spot for campaign headquarters—Thomas E Dewey not only lived here but ran his Presidential headquarters in the building, and Nelson A. Rockefeller had his Gubernatorial headquarters here in 1958, as did Kenneth B. Keating who was campaigning for Senate—changing times and an aging structure posed problems in the 1960s.

The famous Grill Room was closed the weekend before Christmas in 1963 “with no plans for reopening,” according to The New York Times; and in September 1962 newspapers announced “An Era Ends” when Guy Lombardo’s 33-year stretch came to an end.

Trouble continued in 1980 when, on July 19, the Colonial Room nightclub was destroyed by a flash fire and a month later the hotel received bad press when a Pennsylvania delegate to the Democratic National Convention, Cynthia Friedman, was robbed at knife point in the hotel corridor.

A year earlier the Pakistan International Airlines, heavily backed by Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, signed a long-term lease on the Roosevelt, with an option to purchase after 20 years.   Nevertheless, the hotel, growing ever more dated, would not receive a face lift until that lease was up.

When the Pakistan International Airlines exercised its option to buy, it spent not only $36.5 million for the property, but initiated a $65 million renovation which prompted the ABA Journal on August 5, 1998 to proclaim it “once again reflects the simple splendor of its glittering past.”

Another updating was announced on January 1, 2011.  It resulted in the amenities expected by 21^st century travelers, including a rooftop lounge, fitness facility and Wi-Fi—none of which Chauncey Depew would have found necessary.   George B. Post & Sons’ handsome façade and historic-inspired interiors were little changed. 

photo by Billy Hathorn

The hotel has appeared in about a dozen motion pictures and in popular television shows like Mad Men.  Today the Roosevelt Hotel is the last unaltered hotel of Terminal City—built at a time when the Grand Central area bustled with the comings and goings of thousands of business travelers who needed a place to stay.