The Waldorf-Astoria was a hotel on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, built in 1893 and razed in 1929. It originated as two hotels, built side by side by feuding relatives, was expanded in 1897, and razed to make way for construction of the Empire State Building. Their successor, the current Waldorf Astoria New York, was built on Park Avenue in 1931.
The original Waldorf Hotel opened on March 13, 1893, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street, on the site where millionaire developer William Waldorf Astor had previously built his mansion. Constructed in the German Renaissance style by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, it stood high, with 15 public rooms and 450 guest rooms, and a further 100 rooms allocated to servants, with laundry facilities on the upper floors. It was heavily furnished with antiques purchased by founding manager and president George Boldt and his wife during an 1892 visit to Europe. The Empire Room was the largest and most lavishly adorned room in the Waldorf, and soon after opening it became one of the best restaurants in New York, rivaling Delmonico's and Sherry's.
The Astoria Hotel opened in 1897 on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, next door to the Waldorf. It was also designed in the German Renaissance style by Hardenbergh, at a height of about , with sixteen stories, twenty-five public rooms and 550 guest rooms. The ballroom, in the Louis XIV style, has been described as the "pièce de résistance" of the hotel, with a capacity to seat 700 at banquets and 1,200 at concerts. The Astor Dining Room was faithfully reproduced from the original dining room of the mansion which once stood on the site.
Connected by the long corridor, known as "Peacock Alley" after the merger in 1897, the hotel had 1,300 bedrooms, making it the largest hotel in the world at the time. It was designed specifically to cater to the needs of socially prominent "wealthy upper crust" of New York and distinguished foreign visitors to the city. It was the first hotel to offer electricity and private bathrooms throughout. The Waldorf gained world renown for its fundraising dinners and balls, as did its celebrity maître d'hôtel, Oscar Tschirky, known as "Oscar of the Waldorf". Tschirky authored The Cookbook by Oscar of The Waldorf (1896), a 900-page book featuring recipes that remain popular worldwide today.
History 18th century
In 1799, John Thompson bought a tract of land roughly bounded by Madison Avenue, 36th Street, Sixth Avenue, and 33rd Street, immediately north of the Caspar Samler farm, for US$2400.
19th century In 1826, John Jacob Astor purchased Thompson's parcel, as well as one from Mary and John Murray who owned a farm on Murray Hill, in the area, which is now Madison Avenue to Lexington Avenue, between 34th and 38th streets. In 1827, William B. Astor, Sr. bought a half interest, including Fifth Avenue from 32nd to 35th streets, for $20,500. He built an unpretentious square red brick house on the southwest corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, while John Jacob Astor erected a home at the northwest corner of 33rd Street.
William Waldorf Astor, motivated in part by a dispute with his aunt Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, built the Waldorf Hotel next door to her house, on the site of his father's mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street. After Astor IV’s decision to leave the United States, he also decided to demolish his father's home (which had come to him as the male in the family line—and not his mother—after his father’s death) and build a hotel on the property originally bought by John Jacob Astor. When the 1870 Astor home was demolished, there was no idea that Astor would build a hotel on the property. Astor IV did not stay in his own hotel when visiting the U.S., preferring to stay elsewhere; he is known to have visited the Waldorf-Astoria only once.
The hotel was built to the specifications of the founding proprietor George Boldt, who owned and operated The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, an elite hotel in Philadelphia, with his wife, Louisa Augusta Kehrer Boldt (1860–1904). The original plans for the Waldorf were for a hotel with eleven stories; Louise believed that thirteen was a lucky number and persuaded her husband to add two floors to the construction. William Astor's construction of a hotel next to his aunt's house worsened his feud with her, but, with Boldt's assistance, John Astor persuaded his mother to move uptown. The Waldorf Hotel, named after the Astor family's ancestral hometown of Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, was opened for business March 13, 1893.
Early on, the Waldorf was regarded with mockery over its large number of bathrooms and was known briefly as "Boldt's Folly" after Boldt, or "Astor's Folly", with the general perception of the palatial hotel being that it had no place in New York. It appeared destined for failure. Wealthy New Yorkers were angry because they viewed the construction of the hotel as the ruination of a good neighborhood. Business travelers found it too expensive and too far uptown for their needs.
Boldt decided that the hotel would host a benefit concert for St. Mary's Hospital for Children the day after its opening. The hospital was the favorite charity of those on the Social Register. Despite the rain the night of the ball, the ballroom filled with many of New York's First Families, who had paid $5.00 ($ in ) for the concert and dinner. Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt donated the services of the New York Symphony Orchestra led by Walter Damrosch to provide the music for the event. Even with a proper escort, women of the times generally did not venture into hotels, but those attending also toured the facilities.
While Boldt made news by insisting the Waldorf's waiters be clean-shaven even though he wore a beard, his decision to hire young Oscar Tschirky was one of the key factors in the hotel's success. Oscar was personable, humble and very willing to tend to patrons' needs on an individual basis. More than thirty years later, Tschirky was able to recall the Waldorf's opening day and the names of many of the Social Register guests who made the hotel successful when it hosted the charity concert and dinner.
Business soon picked up and the hotel earned $4.5 million ($ in ) in its first year, exorbitant for that period. By 1895, the Waldorf added a five-story addition. This brought the hotel's ballroom down to the main floor; the move brought many parties and dinners which were formerly held in private homes, into the Waldorf. Adjacent to the new ballroom was the Oak Room, where one could sit by large fireplaces where there were always logs on the hearth. In winter, waiters would offer patrons complimentary baked potatoes with butter.
When a decision was made to build a second hotel next to the Waldorf, truce provisions were developed between the Astors which reserved some proprietary rights. The plan design used corridors to join the two buildings and there was even a bond provision for bricking up the corridors should the need arise. On November 1, 1897, Waldorf's cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, opened the 16 story Astoria Hotel on an adjacent site. The Astoria, named after Astoria, Oregon, which was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1811, stood on the site of William B. Astor's house, and was leased to Boldt.
The two hotels, under one management, were renamed the Waldorf-Astoria. Situated on Fifth Avenue in what is now Midtown Manhattan, it was surrounded by streets on all sides. The Waldorf-Astoria had a frontage of on Fifth Avenue, on 33rd Street, on 34th Street, and on Astor Court, with 13 entrances opening directly from these thoroughfares. Below, extending to a depth beneath the sidewalk, and occupying an additional area of running toward Broadway, were the basements, which contained the engine room, laundries, and kitchens. From the sidewalk to the observatory roof was a height of .
It was the largest hotel in the world at the time. The cost of the two buildings, exclusive of the furnishings but including the land, was about $15 million ($ in ). The assessed value in 1897 was $12.125 million ($ in ) making it the next most valuable parcel on Fifth Avenue, after the B. Altman and Company Building site immediately northeast. The hotel became, according to author Sean Dennis Cashman, "a successful symbol of the opulence and achievement of the Astor family".
20th century The hotel faced stiff competition from the early 20th century, with a range of new hotels springing up in New York City such as the Hotel Astor (1904), perceived as a successor to the Waldorf-Astoria; The St. Regis (1904), built by John Jacob Astor IV as a companion to the Waldorf-Astoria; The Knickerbocker (1906); and the Savoy-Plaza Hotel (1927). By the 1920s, the hotel was becoming dated, and the elegant social life of New York had moved much farther north than 34th Street. The Astor family sold the hotel to the developers of the Empire State Building and closed the hotel on May 3, 1929; it was demolished soon afterward. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel records of 1893–1929 are held by the New York Public Library's Archives & Manuscripts division.
Society
From its inception, the Waldorf was considered a "must stay" hotel for foreign dignitaries. The viceroy of China, Li Hung-Chang stayed at the hotel in 1896 and feasted on 100-year-old eggs which he brought with him. Li also brought his own stoves, chefs and servants with him to prepare and serve his meals. Upon his departure from the Waldorf, he ordered a basket of roses to be sent to every female guest at the hotel, and was very generous in the gifts and gratuities he provided for the hotel's staff.
In 1902, a lavish dinner was organized for Prince Henry of Prussia; in addition, the hotel built a private door on its 33rd Street side and installed a private elevator. The staff was also called upon to form a "bucket brigade" for the prince's bath when there was a problem with the plumbing in the royal suite.
One early wealthy resident was Chicago businessman J. W. Gates, a Wall Street investor, who played poker at the hotel. He paid up to $50,000 a year to hire suites at the hotel, where he had his own private entrance and elevator. Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna of Russia was invited by Waldorf president Lucius Bloomer to stay at the hotel in the 1920s.
The Waldorf-Astoria gained significant renown for its fundraising dinners and balls, regularly attracting notables of the day such as Andrew Carnegie who became a fixture. Banquets were often held in the ballroom for esteemed figures and international royalty.
On February 10, 1897, the Bradley-Martin Ball was an extravagant costume ball, organized by Cornelia Bradley-Martin, wife of Bradley Martin. 800 socialites dressed as monarchs from the prior three centuries. Bradley-Martin intended the ball to be an economic stimulus, during the Long Depression.McGerr, Michael. A Fierce Discontent. Oxford University Press, Inc. NY, pages 4-6, 2003.
On February 11, 1899, Oscar of the Waldorf hosted a lavish dinner reception which the New York Herald Tribune cited as the city's costliest dinner at the time. Some $250 ($ in ) was spent per guest, with bluepoint oysters, green turtle soup, lobster, ruddy duck and blue raspberries. Two months later, 120 sailors of the cruiser were given a banquet, during which the gallery was decorated with silk banners and flags.
In 1899, a Pennsylvania newspaper reported that, at any one time, the hotel had $7 million ($ in ) worth of valuables locked in the safe, testament to the wealth of its guests. In 1909, banquets, attended by hundreds, were organized for Arctic explorer Frederick Cook in September and Elbert Henry Gary, a founder of US Steel, the following month.