The Waldorf Astoria New York

The Waldorf Astoria originated as two hotels, built side by side by relatives on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. The Waldorf Astoria was razed in 1929 to make way for the construction of the Empire State Building.

1893-1929 - The Creation of a Legend

The original Waldorf Hotel was built at 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue in 1893 by William Waldorf Astor. Constructed in the German Renaissance style by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, it stood 225 feet (69 m) 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 European antiques brought back by the founding manager and president George Boldt and his wife from an 1892 visit to Europe.

Four years later, John Jacob Astor IV, William’s cousin and familial rival, built an even taller hotel next door in an act of one-upmanship. 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 270 feet (82 m), with 16 stories, 25 public rooms and 550 guest rooms.

The cousins finally agreed to a truce and the two buildings were connected through a 300 foot marble corridor known as Peacock Alley. The Waldorf-Astoria was born and boasted 1,300 bedrooms, making it the largest hotel in the world at the time. It was designed specifically to cater to the needs of the 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. 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 City, rivaling Delmonico's and Sherry’s. 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.

1930 - 1934 - The Grand Re-Opening

In 1931, the Waldorf Astoria re-opened in its current Park Avenue location, becoming the largest and tallest hotel in the world. Designed in the Art Deco style, it welcomed presidents, royals, movie stars, and cultural luminaries into its grand public spaces and palatial suites.

1931 - Room Service, Day and Night

The Waldorf Astoria set a list of global precedents: the first hotel to have electricity on every floor, the first to have en suite baths, and the first to offer 24-hour room service. A rose topped each room service order that went to The Towers.

1934 - Cole Porter Moves In

Cole Porter moved to The Towers in 1934 and kept his residence at the Waldorf Astoria until his death in 1964. The hotel’s managers gifted him a Steinway piano that he nicknamed “High Society” and on which he composed iconic songs such as “Anything Goes.” He called his ten-room, 33rd floor suite “a dream of beauty.”

1950 - 1963 - Golden Age

From Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald, celebrities flocked to New York’s unofficial palace. The Waldorf Astoria hosted legendary events like Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Grace Kelly’s engagement party, President John F. Kennedy’s birthday gala, the April in Paris Ball, and a special address by Queen Elizabeth II. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor made the Waldorf Astoria their home after the Duke abdicated the throne, and the hotel welcomed every U.S. president from Herbert Hoover to Barack Obama.

1964 - Onwards

The Waldorf Astoria is ensconced in American culture. Over the decades leading cultural figures performed, resided, or hosted parties here such as Andy Warhol, Tina Turner, and Mick Jagger. Ella Fitzgerald regularly sang in the Starlight Roof ballroom, and in later years, galas honoring the world’s most important people were fixtures of the social calendar.

Source: WaldorfTowers.NYC