Astors,st. Regis hotel, Titanic and Bloody Mary

The St. Regis hotel, on the corner of 5th avenue and East 55 street  was built by John Jacob Astor IV, one of the wealthiest men in America and the member of a prominent Astor family.   Construction began in 1901 and the hotel opened September 4, 1904.  Jack was a great-grandson of the founder of the family John Jacob Astor  and the son of  Caroline Astor,  referred   later in life as "the Mrs. Astor". Here portrait  by the French artist Carolus-Duran  is in   the  Metropolitan museum, New York.

Astor was born in the family estate  "Ferncliff," north of the town center of Rhinebeck, New York. The estate, reduced to 50 acres and renamed "Astor Courts,"  later became a wedding venue.   The wedding of Chelsea Clinton took place there on July 31, 2010.

In 1891 Astor was married to Ava. Together  they had a son Vincent and  daughter Alice. The family been living in their luxury house on East 65 and 5th Avenue.  En Emanuel  synagogue is now on this place. 

In 1894 Astor  wrote “ A Journey in Other Worlds” , a  science fiction novel about the space ship Callisto that travel  in  2000 to  the planets Saturn and Jupiter.  Inventions Astor envisioned,  included a picture telephone, an airplane with the ability to fly to Europe in one day, an electric automobile, hidden phonographs by the police to record conversations of criminals and color photography. Astors' pneumatic walkway invention won a prize at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and he was one of the first Americans to own a motor car.

Seven years before St. Regis, In 1897 Astor built the Astoria Hotel  adjoining the Waldorf Hotel which had been built by his cousin William Waldorf Astor.  The new complex became known as the Waldorf-Astoria. You can find more about Waldorf-Astoria in my posts.

At the suggestion of his niece, Miss Helen Roosevelt , Astor named the new hotel after 742-acre Upper St. Regis Lake in the Adirondacks, where New York City’s richest and most powerful gathered their families  long before the Hamptons became their summer playground.  Astor liked the lake where his brother-in-law, J. R. Roosevelt, had a camp.
The construction of the hotel cost over five and a half million dollars. There were 18 floors in the hotel and the building was the tallest  in the city when built.
There were marble floors and hallways from the quarries in  France , Louis XV furniture from France and a library with more than 3000 books. There were  telephones in every room, a fire alarm system, central heating and an air-cooling system in every room of the hotel. There was even a central vacuum systems – innovation  for the beginning on the XX century.  
 The list of celebrities who  were the guest of the hotel is long and include Salvador Dali and his wife Gala, Marlene Dietrich and Russian prince Serge Obolensky, who lately marries Jacks daughter  Alice.

In  1909 at the age of 47  Astor divorced Ava and, two years later, married eighteen-year-old Madeleine Force. Mr. and Mrs. Astor travelled to Egypt and Paris and, in the spring of 1912, decided to return to America on board the brand new Titanic. After the crash Astor helped his pregnant  wife to climb through the windows of the enclosed promenade and board a boat. His wife survived.  His body was recovered seven days later.

Astor's son Vincent inherited the hotel and sold it to Benjamin Newton Duke.In 1927, the Dukes added a new wing  on  the east end, added a rooftop ballroom/nightclub, and increased the height to 20 stories.  In 1935, in the depths of the Great Depression, Vincent Astor bought the hotel back from the Dukes. The lobby of the hotel  and elaborate marble staircase  has not been altered since Astor died.  And the thousands of leather-bound books that he collected have been preserved on the same bookshelves for 100 years.

 In 1934 bartender of the hotel bar Fernand Petiot   invented a drink   which he called the "Red Snapper". It has since become known around the world as the Bloody Mary.

On April 4 , 2012 the St. Regis held a small dinner in the hotel library to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking. The guests, who included some of Astor's descendants, were dressed in fur and feathers as they perused his books and dined on food inspired by the last meal served aboard the ship. 

Astors-Landlords of New York. Waldorf Astora. Part2

Waldorf-Astoria on  Park Avenue between East 49th and 50th Streets was built in 1931. I told about the history  of the hotel  and the prominent Astor  family ,  known as “the landlords of New York” in  the first Post about “Waldorf-Astoria” and  “En Emanuel” synagogue.

President Herbert Hoover delivered a radio broadcast commemorating the opening of the hotel and congratulating its owners.   He said: “The opening of the new Waldorf-Astoria is an event in the development of hotels even in New York City. It carries on a great tradition in national hospitality. A long line of constantly improving hotels from that day to this has marked the measure of the Nation's growth in power, in comfort, and in artistry”.

There were under two thousand rooms in the hotel, making it  largest hotel in the United States when it was open. The new hotel  has a handsome corridor an a restaurant which was built to captured the spirit  of the fabled promenade in the old Waldorf “Peacock Alley”. 

The Waldorf Towers has its’ own private entrance and elevator lobby on Fiftieth Street and is used exclusively for long-term tenants.  The Towers have 115 suites and 90 rooms on the 28th to 42nd floors. President Hoover  lived in New York in the suite 31-A  for 30 years of the Waldorf Towers after departure from the White House and had a personal waiter.

Every president since Herbert Hoover has stayed in the presidential suite.  The President  suite on the 35th floor includes four bedrooms, and the hotel hand-monograms towels for the first lady and president when they visit.

The hotel has its own railway platform (Track 61)  as part of Grand Central Terminal, used by the president Franklin D. Roosevelt.   An elevator  large enough for Franklin D. Roosevelt's automobile provides access to the platform.

When President Bush was in the hotel in 2003 seeking international support for the U.S. resolution on Iraq, the Secret Service arranged for the Metro-North train to be parked at an abandoned platform, always running and ready for instant departure.
 Queen Elizabeth II, General Charles de Gaulle,   Nikita Krushchev, David Ben-Gurion were among the gusts of the Hotel.

The International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria is held every even year in December to formally introduce young high society women. The Ball, founded in 1954, is the most prestigious and the most exclusive debutante ball in the world. Three quarters of debutantes are from US.  France, England, Italy and Germany are represented most frequently.  Each debutante has to be escorted by two men: one United States Military Academy cadet and one American civilian.  28 girls   from all over the world took part in the 2012 Ball.  The price was $16000.Among  the notable past debutantes are the daughter of President Richard Nixon and American fashion designer Vera Vang, the daughter and granddaughter of Malcolm Forbes, the publisher of Forbes magazine, and princesses Natalya and Octavia Obolensky, great-great-great-great daughters of John Jacob Astor

 

Waldorf salad — a salad made with apples, walnuts, celery, grapes, and mayonnaise or a mayonnaise-based dressing — was first created in 1896 at the Waldorf in New York City by Oscar Tschirky, known throughout the world as Oscar of the Waldorf, who was the maître d'hôtel.

There is a new lush green garden  on the roof filled with planting beds of different vegetables and herbs. There are also six hives brimming with thousands of honey bees. This summer (2013) marks the second year the hotel is harvesting its own honey.
During 2006, the Hilton Hotels Corporation   introduced the luxury brand Waldorf=Astoria Collection. The first three additional member hotels were in  Arizona, Phoenix  on   Maui  and   in California.

Astors-Landlords of New York. Waldorf Astoria. Part 1

Waldorf-Astoria that sits on posh Park Avenue between East 49th and 50th Streets.   Every president of United States after 1931 ( the year when the current Waldorf-Astoria was built) was the guest of the hotel.  Waldorf-Astoria   was built by two Astor cousins. This famous hotel is  not the first hotel in new York that was built by Astor.  The first one was built by the founder of the family   John Jacob Astor, who came to America in 1763 from Germany and made a fortune  in fur-goods  trading. 
 At the beginning on the XIX century Astor started buying and renting land. His motto was “never sell,” and he didn’t. He assembled the building lots around his former house and opened hotel in 1836 on the west side of Broadway between Vesey and Barclay Streets. There were more than 300 rooms in 6 floors. The hotel had its own gas manufacturing plant that supplied gas lighting for the building.  A steam engine in the basement ran a pump that provided water to all floors and powered machinery in the kitchen and laundry.   There were 17 bathrooms and 2 showers.

The running water for these facilities was provided by the   reservoirs in the attic.  The price was $2 per day. President Abraham Lincoln, Grand Duke Alexis , Admiral Farragut  and Charles Dickens slept here. The southern section of the hotel was demolished in 1913 because of the subway building.  The rest of the house was shattered in 1926 and the Transportation building was built.

In 1827   William Backhouse  Astor, son of   John Jacob Astor I, who inherited the major portion of the estate, purchased a  farm north of the city and built a small brick house  at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.  Within a few decades Astor’s section of the land became the most prestigious residential district in the United States.  William Backhouse Astor was the wealthiest person in the U.S  - he more than doubled the family fortune. After Williams’ death , the Fifth Avenue property was passed to his sons. 

In early 1880s one of Williams’ grandsons, William Waldorf Astor  opened the 13-story Waldorf Hotel on the site, which had formerly boasted his mansion, at Fifth Avenue at 33rd Street.

 Later William moved to London and become a British subject in 1899.  He accepted a peerage of the United Kingdom and was elevated to the rank of Viscount.  In 1908 he opened hotel  in London,  known now as “Waldorf Hilton” now.   The “Waldorf  hotel “ in New York had 17 stores, and was designed by the same architect   who later designed the Plaza Hotel in 1907.

There was a long corridor connecting two of the most popular restaurants in Waldorf, the Palm and the Empire rooms.  Almost from the opening, the corridor was a popular promenade for ladies of fashion to display their gowns and jewelry. The society editor of the New York Tribune called it “Peacock Alley”.

Four years later his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV built 17-story Astoria Hotel an adjacent site.  John Jacob  had a lavish house on the corner of 5th Avenue and East 65. El Emanuel  temple  occupies this lot now.  You can find more about  El Emanuel   in one of my posts.

 

 The hotels were initially built as two separate structures, but the architect planned the Astoria so it could be connected to the Waldorf by the “Peacock Alley”.  The combined  hotel was originally known as The Waldorf-Astoria with a single hyphen, as recalled by a popular expression and song, "Meet Me at the Hyphen."  The first words of the song are “At the Waldorf hyphen  Astoria no matter who or what you are”.

The sign was changed to a double hyphen (Waldorf=Astoria)   by Conrad Hilton when he purchased the hotel in 1949.  Hyphen  completely removed from the hotel name  in  2009.

 

The combined Waldorf-Astoria was  the largest and the tallest hotel in the world at the time. It was the first hotel to offer room service  and was the first hotel to offer permanent living spaces in its suites. The Waldorf-Astoria   was the first hotel to put an end to the old-fashioned Ladies’ Parlor rule and ladies can have dinner in the same room as gentlemen.

 

In 1929 the original hotel was sold to Bethlehem Engineering Corporation and  torn down   to make room for the Empire State Building.  Former Waldorf manager Lucius M. Boomer had retired to Florida after the demolition  but he retained exclusive rights to the name, which he transferred to the new hotel. Boomer died in an airplane crash in 1947 and Conrad Hilton bought The Waldorf Astoria in 1949. The new Waldorf-Astoria was opened to the public on October 1, 1931. 

 

Learn More about the history of the hotel from New York City History

 

Temple Emanu-El - the largest synagogue in the world

   Temple Emanu-El in New York City ( 5th Avenue and East 65) is the largest synagogue in the world. It can accommodate 2,500 worshipers - more than St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. 

Temple is made of the limestone and is designed in the Romanesque architectural style with Moorish and Art Deco elements.

Directly out front of the temple there is an enormous wheel-like window with twelve spokes that represent the twelve tribes of Israel.

Temple Emanu-El is on the site of demolished John Jacob Astor IV mega mansion that had been sitting on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 65th Street from 1895. The house was one of the grandest houses in New York at that time.

    Jack was a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, the founder of the prominent Astor Family, who arrived from Germany penniless , made fortune with fur trading and made the Astors’ one of the wealthiest families in the America. John Jacob Astor IV went down with Titanic in 1912 after helping his pregnant wife escape into the last lifeboat.

   His son Vincent sold the Astor Mansion to developers for $130,000. The salon, library and all of the painting in the ballroom where bought by the John Ringling for his Italian Renaissance style mansion in Sarasota.

   John Ringling, who is mostly known as a circus showman and promoter, bought massive bronze doors from the Fifth Avenues entrance of the Astor Mansion. These doors now are at the entrance to the Sarasota Art Museum in Florida. He also purchased many of the paintings that were in the great Astor ballroom and complete fittings of several rooms, two of which are re-installed in Museum.

   The temple's first ceremony was in September 1929, a few short weeks before the stock market crash. The Emanu-El congregation was the first Reform congregation established in New York City . It was founded in 1845 by 33 German Jews,  who assembled for in a rented hall in Lower East Side.

   In the end of XIX the mixed seating was adopted, allowing families to sit together, instead of segregating the sexes on opposite sides of a hall. The congregation also eliminated mandatory head-coverings for men. Michael Bloomberg and Eliot Spitzer are the members of the congregation. There is in-house small museum where religious relics, some dating back to the sixteenth-century are kept. Temple Emanu-El also hosts lectures, films, music, symposiums, and other events.