Look Up: A Center for Sin in New York's Tenderloin District, Now Flatiron

Image via Complex Original

Prior to the Civil War, the center for theater and hotels in New York was south of 14th Street along the Bowery. As the city expanded abruptly in the economic boom brought by peace, much of this moved north, to above 23rd Street. “The Line” as it was known, was centered on Broadway, between 23rd and 34th, and with the introduction of the electric illuminated signs, it was soon also known as the “Great White Way.” When the theaters moved north again to the area around Times Square, that name moved along with it. The other nickname, however, that the neighborhood itself earned, remained.

In the late 1800s the area between 23rd and 34th Streets along Broadway had the largest density of theaters in the city. And with all these theaters came many hotels, nightclubs, saloons, and dance halls. And naturally, along with these came numerous bordellos, casinos, and “clip joints.” “Satan’s circus” is what the anti-vice reverend Thomas De Witt Talmage called the area, and he spoke often to denounce all of New York as Gomorrah. But it was the association with a phrase spoken by the corrupt Police Captain Andrew Williams that stuck with the district the most. “Clubber” Williams made so much money taking bribes and other kickbacks to maintain “order” in his district that he was able to retire a millionaire. And once when asked, he was quoted as having said that previously he had “been having chuck steak ever since I’ve been on the force, and now I’m going to have a bit of tenderloin.” The name stuck for New York, and even informed the similarly corrupt neighborhood of San Francisco.

During the heyday of the Tenderloin, the Grand Hotel was one of the central figures in all the excitement and all the vice of the area. The Second Empire style was all the rage for new construction in the New World, and the elaborate two-storey mansard roofs of the hotel made it a spectacular sight on the block. Being strategically situated on the corner of a diagonally running street allowed for Englebert to take advantage of large sightlines so that the roof and building could be seen from quite far.

The hotel’s design also allowed for an elaborate chamfered bay window to be positioned on the corner, anchoring the building to the street. Sadly, much of the ornament has been stripped from the building—the cast iron ground floor storefronts have been replaced—but the austere white marble façade that remains is still striking. The building was placed on the National Register in 1983 and was made a NYC Landmark in 1979.

A closer look at the detailed roof.

The corner of the Grand Hotel's roof.