Image via Complex Original
In 1903, the Pennock Brothers of Philadelphia set out to build a lavish hotel in the newly renamed Times Square district. They engaged the firm of Marvin and Davis, who along with Bruce Price, designed a spectacular grand building in the style of the Second Empire. Unfortunately, during the first year of construction, they had financial troubles, and John Jacob Astor IV, who still owned the land, took over. At the time of the hotel’s construction, the IRT was also being built and Astor secured a deal where a private entrance from the subway would connect directly to his building. The sign for the Knickerbocker (142 West 42nd St.) still remains visible from the east end of the Track 1 platform of the shuttle train.
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It’s said that the martini was invented at the hotel. According to the story, in 1912, the house bartender Martin di Arma di Tagga mixed John D. Rockefeller a drink with dry vermouth and gin. Rockefeller loved the drink so much that he recommended it to all his business friends and it soon became a national favorite. Of course, Rockefeller was supposedly a lifelong teetotaler, so go figure.
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That same year, Astor died during the Titanic disaster, and his son Vincent took over managing the hotel. He ran the establishment until the restrictions of Prohibition forced him to close the main dining room in 1921. During the Depression, Charles Platt was commissioned to renovate the structure into an office building and much of the interior decoration was removed. Only the “Old King Cole” mural by Maxfield Parrish survived, and is now above the bar at the St. Regis.
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In the 1940s and ’50s Newsweek magazine made the Knickerbocker their home, and the building was renamed briefly. Before that it was also affectionately referred to as the “42nd Street Country Club,” as during its heyday, it was home to prominent Broadway stars.
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In 1980, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places and was converted to a residential building modestly called “1466 Broadway.” In 1988 it was designated a New York City Landmark. In recent years it has changed owners several times, and after being vacant for much of that time was just bought earlier this year by a Texas hotel chain that plans on reopening the hotel as a 330-room luxurious palace by the end of 2013.
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The 15-storey building is made predominantly with red brick and adorned with beige terra-cotta detailing. Originally designed to be a “Fifth Avenue hotel at Broadway prices,” the building boasts an elaborate three-storey copper mansard roof that caps the corner building.
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The rhythm of the standard sized windows in the façade is punctuated with a staggering pattern of Juliet balconies and decorated arched cornices. The center third of the façade on 42nd Street is also slightly pushed in, breaking up the otherwise enormous massing of the building. The central double windows of the two flanking abutments are further accentuated with larger balconies and cornices decorated in turn with reclining cherubs and baskets of fruit holding a central garland of apples.
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Above, on the mansard, the dormered windows stagger as the roof recedes from the corners. At the crown, a row of lion heads mark the end of the roof. The base of the building is otherwise nondescript, having suffered the most from the numerous conversions. The entrance has been relocated to the southern end, off Broadway. Hopefully, the upcoming restorations will bring the grandeur back to this once-great hotel, and Times Square will again have a respectful, non-neon beacon.
