Demolished hotel in Manhattan, New York
The
Drake Hotel
was a
hotel
at 440
Park Avenue
and
56th Street
, in
Midtown Manhattan
,
New York City
. Built in 1926 by
Bing & Bing
, it contained 495 rooms across 21 floors. It was sold in 2006 and demolished to make way for a residential skyscraper called
432 Park Avenue
.
History
[
edit
]
The hotel was built in 1926 by the real estate organization of
Bing & Bing
. It was a 21-floor complex with 495 rooms. According to one source, "it boasted innovations such as automatic refrigeration as well as spacious, luxurious rooms and suites".
[1]
Fauchon
chocolates was located on the ground floor.
Notable residents
[
edit
]
Silent film star
Lillian Gish
lived at the hotel from 1946 to 1949. Other notable guests included
Frank Sinatra
,
Muhammad Ali
,
Judy Garland
,
Jimi Hendrix
and
Glenn Gould
. Restaurateur
Toots Shor
lived there in his final years. Songwriter
Jerome Kern
collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the Drake on November 5, 1945. Publishers
Bob Guccione
and
Kathy Keeton
maintained a permanently reserved suite at the Drake Hotel as their New York residence prior to acquiring the Jeremiah Milbanks Mansion at 14-16 East 67th Street circa 1977.
[2]
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Drake Hotel was the preferred accommodation in New York for a number of touring
rock bands
, such as
Led Zeppelin
and
The Who
. During their stay there in July 1973, Led Zeppelin had $203,000 in cash stolen from a safe deposit box at the hotel. The money was never recovered and the identity of the thief or thieves has never been discovered. The band later sued the Drake Hotel for the theft.
[3]
The British rock band
Slade
stayed at the hotel on October 6, 1973 after their gig at the New York Academy of Music. Another British rock band
Sweet
made The Drake their home away from home during gruelling tours in the USA in the 1970s.
In 1982, The Drake hotel accommodated singers
Karen Carpenter
and
Olivia Newton-John
.
Venues
[
edit
]
The Drake Room, opened in 1945, was the Drake's restaurant, presided over by
Beniamino Schiavon
("Mr. Nino of the Drake") from its opening until 1968.
Cy Walter
played piano from its opening to 1951, and then from 1959 until at least 1966.
[4]
The Drake's nightclub, Shepheard's, was touted as New York's first
discotheque
and the most fashionable of the mid-1960s with celebrities like
Lee Radziwill
and
Julie Newmar
dancing to a disc jockey until 3 a.m. seven days a week,
[5]
despite its tiny dance floor.
[6]
The club even had printed and distributed cards entitled, “How to Do the Newest Discotheque Dances at Shepheard's in New York's Drake Hotel” with step-by-step instructions to dance the
Jerk
,
Watusi
,
Frug
and the
Monkey
.
[7]
Demolition and redevelopment
[
edit
]
The hotel was acquired in the early 1980s by the
Swissotel
company of Zurich, which renamed it
Swissotel The Drake
and undertook a $52 million room-by-room renovation of the building. The hotel received positive national exposure, as the
syndicated
talk show
Donahue
used the hotel to accommodate the show's guests, in exchange for a mention of it on each episode. Renovations were completed in 1991. In 2006 the hotel was sold for $440 million (equivalent to $640 million in 2023
[8]
) to developer
Harry Macklowe
. It was demolished in 2007, and the site became one of New York's most valuable development sites in 2011.
[9]
In mid-2012, construction began on a 1,398-foot (426 m) residential skyscraper,
432 Park Avenue
, on the site.
[10]
Designed by
Rafael Vinoly
, the tower topped out in October 2014,
[11]
becoming the
tallest building in New York City
by roof height, and the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere at the time of its completion.
[12]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Turkel, Stanley (December 2006).
"Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 21"
.
Hotel Online
. Retrieved
November 16,
2022
.
- ^
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,907634,00.html
- ^
Welch, Chris (1994).
Led Zeppelin
. London: Orion Books. p. 68.
ISBN
1-85797-930-3
.
- ^
Chilton Ryan, liner notes for
Cy Walter at the Drake
(LP record)
- ^
Gunderman, Dan (September 24, 2016).
"An intimate look at what was once a hopping midtown Manhattan hotel, the Drake ? and its sky-high replacement"
.
New York Daily News
. Retrieved
January 30,
2020
.
- ^
Caldwell, Mark (2005).
New York Night: The Mystique and Its History
. New York: Scribner. p. 314.
ISBN
0743274784
.
- ^
Turkel, Stanley (October 14, 2013).
"Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 112; Hotel History: The Drake Hotel in New York"
.
Hotel Online
. Retrieved
January 30,
2020
.
- ^
Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023).
"What Was the U.S. GDP Then?"
.
MeasuringWorth
. Retrieved
November 30,
2023
.
United States
Gross Domestic Product deflator
figures follow the
MeasuringWorth
series.
- ^
"Drake Hotel tops most valuable NYC development sites list"
.
The Real Deal New York
. June 21, 2011. Archived from
the original
on June 23, 2011
. Retrieved
May 29,
2015
.
- ^
"432 Park Avenue"
.
SkyscraperPage.com
. Retrieved
August 17,
2012
.
- ^
Adamczyk, Alicia (October 17, 2014).
"Inside New York's $95 Million Penthouse: 432 Park Avenue"
.
Forbes
. Retrieved
August 6,
2015
.
- ^
Bagli, Charles V. (May 18, 2013).
"Boom in Luxury Towers Is Warping New York Real Estate Market"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
August 5,
2015
.
External links
[
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]