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New York Architecture
Images- Gone The
Waldorf Astoria |
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architect
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Henry
J. Hardenbergh (1847-1918) |
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location
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Fifth Avenue and 33rd
Street |
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date
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1893 |
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style
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Historicist Skyscrapers
Second Empire Baroque French
Chateau |
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construction
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Stone and brick cladding, steel frame. Mansard
roof. |
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type
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Hotel |
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images
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notes
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In 1890 William Waldorf Astor
decided to raze the family mansion on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd
Street and commissioned Henry J. Hardenbergh to build the largest, most
luxurious hotel in the world. The 13 story Waldorf Hotel, with 450 rooms,
opened in 1893 and was instantly the talk of the town. Its success
inspired John Jacob Astor, William’s cousin, who owned the other half of
the block, to demolish his house and build an adjacent connected hotel.
The Astoria, also designed by Hardenbergh, was combined with the Waldorf
in 1897 to form the Waldorf-Astoria. The hotel was not just for
travelers—in its 40 public rooms the fashionable society of New York
gathered, dined, and entertained. The staff numbered nearly as many as the
1,500 guests that registered daily in its 1,300 rooms. Hardenbergh built
many of New York’s grand hotels and apartment buildings of that era,
including the Dakota Apartments (1884) and the Plaza Hotel (1906).
The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was demolished in 1929 to make way for the
construction of the Empire State Building. The hotel’s refined Art Deco
successor soon rose on Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets.
The corridor connecting the two buildings became
an enduring symbol of the combined Waldorf and Astoria hotels, represented
by the quirky "=" the Waldorf=Astoria uses instead of a hyphen
in its official logo. In 1929 the original Waldorf-Astoria was demolished
to make way for the Empire State Building. |
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~The
Waldorf-Astoria~ |
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In
1890, John Jacob Astor III bequeathed his home to his son, William
Waldorf Astor, who decided not to live in it. He chose instead
to live on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street.
It was not William’s intent to live next door to his “Aunt Lina”,
with whom he’d been engaged in a family feud for several years.
As far as William was concerned, he was the male head
of the Astor family, and therefore, it was his wife,
Mary Dahlgren Paul (called Mamie) who was to be referred to as “THE
Mrs. Astor”! It infuriated him that, due to her high social
standing, the press and Society had fallen into the habit of
referring to his aunt as “Mrs. Astor”. Frankly, Caroline
herself regarded the entire matter with simple indifference, but as
William had since childhood considered himself to be superior, and
had always been ill-tempered and spoiled, his intent was to seek
revenge against his aunt. Thus, he decided that rather than live
in the house next door to her, he would build a large, noisy hotel
on the corner of Fifth and 33rd Street that would drive his aunt
crazy, and would literally overshadow her! William Waldorf
insisted that the hotel be named “The Waldorf” so as to always
remind the public of his importance. Yet, by the time of the
hotel’s completion in 1893, Waldorf had been living in England for
two years. He saw his hotel only once in his lifetime. |
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The Waldorf
opened its doors on March 4, 1893 and was a smashing success.
The grand-opening event was a fund-raising party for the benefit of
St. Mary’s Free Hospital for child-ren. The event was
sponsored by some of the most prominent and well-known names of the
upper social circles. The patroness (benefactor) was Mrs.
Richard Irwin, who was one of the original “Four Hundred”, and
was active in unlimited charities. Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt
(also a Fifth Avenue resident and the topic of the next entry on
this webpage) paid for the opening concert, performed by the New
York Symphony led by Walter Dam-rosch. |
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Not
only did The Waldorf prove to be very profitable for the Astor
estate, it also accomplished William’s underlying purpose of
driving his Aunt Lina out of her home at 350 Fifth Avenue. In
actuality, however, Mrs. Astor had begun contemplating her move from
350 Fifth Avenue at the very onset of plans for the Waldorf Hotel in
1890. At that time, rumors began floating that the residence
of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor might be demolished and the site used
for a sister hotel. When William Waldorf moved to England in
1891 (two years prior to the grand opening of his hotel),
Caroline’s son, John Jacob Astor IV, became the titular head of
the Astor family, and plans for the building of a second hotel
became official. The hotel was originally to be called “The
Schermerhorn”, in tribute to his renowned mother, but in the end,
the hotel was named in honor of Astoria, the fur-trapping colony in
Oregon where the Astor wealth originated. |
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The
Astoria had a frontage on Fifth Avenue, but its length was along
34th Street. At sixteen stories, the Astoria stood five
stories taller than the Waldorf, but the two hotels were connected
and in effect, became one building.
The combined hotel (for which provisions were made that the hotels
could be divided at any time; most likely a carry-over from the
uneasy relations between the two branches of the family) became
known as the Waldorf-Astoria, and was the largest
hotel in the world at its opening on November 1, 1897. |
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In
1900, Harper’s Bazaar described the Waldorf-Astoria as “the
fashion of New York and the Mecca of visitors...here is the chosen
gathering place of New York society, which comes here to see and to
be observed...”
And though society did go to the elegant Waldorf-Astoria for its
gatherings, they were choosing to live farther uptown, albeit still
on or near the most elite street of the Victorian Era: Fifth Avenue. |
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Waldorf-Astoria's
Interior "Palm Garden", 1902 |
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With
the death of William B. Astor in 1892, and the opening of the
Waldorf-Astoria hotel in 1893, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor felt that
a move uptown was not only inevitable, but also provident.
After conferring with her son, John Jacob Astor IV (who later died
in the 1912 sinking of the Titanic), they contemplated the southeast
corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street as the site for her new home,
but decided against it because the neighbor-hood was simply too
close to the edge of commercial development and in danger of being
swallowed up by industrial growth. Therefore, it was
determined that a better site for the next Astor mansion would be
the 75 X 100 foot lot on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and
65th Street (which had been purchased by William B. in 1891 for
$215,000). This was indeed grand foresight on the part of Mrs.
Astor because, with the entrance of Central Park laying at its
doorstep, the area near the plaza at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue
acted like a magnet for upper-class development. |
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John
Jacob Astor IV |
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Renowned
architect Richard Morris Hunt began to build the double mansion for
Mrs. William B. Astor and her son, John Jacob IV and his family, and
it was completed in January 1896. The double mansion contained
separate residences for Caroline and her son, but several grand
first-floor rooms that were used for entertaining linked them.
Among these rooms were drawing rooms, libraries, dining rooms and
breakfast rooms, in addition to a great hall that contained a
colossal double staircase. The opulent art gallery was
situated in the center of the house was transformed into a |
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Astor
Residence, 840 Fifth Avenue |
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ballroom
that was used for the Astor’s’ frequent galas, receptions and
balls. Though the room could easily accommodate 600 guests, it
did not give rise to a new standard for society. The new
ballroom never quite saw the grand celebrations that the old
ballroom at 350 Fifth Avenue (which only held 400) had. |
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contact
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nyc-architecture.com
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