Hotel Pennsylvania

The front entrance of the Hotel Pennsylvania

The Hotel Pennsylvania is located at 401 7th Avenue in Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. It was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1919.

History

The Hotel Pennsylvania was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1919 and was operated by Ellsworth Statler. It was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White, which also designed the original columned version Penn Station across the street (The old Pennsylvania Station was razed in 1963 to make room for the Garden and the redeveloped below-ground station seen today.)

The hotel was acquired by the Hotels Statler Company in 1949 and renamed the New York Statler Hotel. Following the sale of all 17 Statler hotels to Conrad Hilton in 1954, the hotel became The Statler Hilton. It operated under this name until the early 1980s, when Hilton sold the hotel and it again became The New York Statler for a brief period, before joining the now-defunct Penta chain in 1984, becoming The New York Penta. Finally, in 1992, it reverted to the Hotel Pennsylvania.

The hotel has had the distinction of having the oldest continuous phone number in New York still in use today. The number, Pennsylvania 6-5000, is the inspiration for the Glenn Miller song of the same name. Many big band names played in the hotel's Cafe Rouge including the Dorsey Brothers, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Proposed demolition

In early January of 2007, plans were announced to demolish the hotel, and replace it with an office tower. Owner Vornado Realty Trust intends to build a 2.5-million-square-foot building by 2011. [1] [2] Vornado's plans take advantage of the fact that the site is the only remaining area in Midtown Manhattan that would not require special permits for development of a new office project of that size. [3]. The investment bank Lehman Brothers is in talks with owner Vornado Realty Trust to lease the new office building and move its headquarters from its current location on 7th Avenue near Times Sqaure.[4]

Shortly after the announcement of Vornado's plans, the staff of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, a magazine which sponsors biennial H.O.P.E. hacker conventions at the hotel, began investigating possible ways to save the hotel from demolition. [5]

Trivia

• Contrary to common practice, there is a 13th floor.
• Although the hotel states it is 18 stories tall, some service elevators will reach the 21st floor.
• The American talk-show Maury tapes in the grand ballroom
• The hotel is the setting of the 2007 film 1408 (film), as the Dolphin Hotel.

External Links

• Official Site
• "Save The Hotel" web page
• 2600's "Save The Hotel" forum
• Off The Hook Episode that Announced the Hotel Penn Demolition
• New York Daily News Article about the Hotel Penn Situation
• Vornado Corp -- The Company That Wants to Tear the Hotel Penn Down
• Concept for the new Vornado on the Wired New York Messageboards