Brian Peralta

Review of The St. Regis Hotel New York

St. Regis Hotel ca. 1907 John Jacob Astor conceive...

St. Regis Hotel ca. 1907 John Jacob Astor conceived Hotel St. Regis as a companion of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. While the Waldorf-Astoria was successful, its neighborhood declined in social value. Astor decided that he was going to build a hotel that would combine the best of Europe in elegance and luxury. When buying land on East 55th Street and Fifth Avenue, Astor intended that St. Regis be located in the most elegant part of the city. Astor hired the architecture studio Trowbridge and Livingston. The architects designed an 18-story Beaux-Arts hotel that would be one of the first hotels in the New York skyscraper tower. However, he encountered a controversy from the moment construction began in 1901. The land Astor had bought was in the middle of rows of mansions owned by the Vanderbilts and other wealthy New Yorkers. The St. Regis would rise above their homes and turn their elegant neighborhood into a new center. The residents of St. Regis used their influence to delay as much as possible. First, the Building Board discovered that the hotel was not fireproof properly, which stopped construction. Then, the neighbors sued due to the blasting necessary for the foundations of the hotel, however, the courts ruled against them. Finally, neighbors discovered that St. Regis violated a New York liquor statute due to its proximity to St. Thomas. The statute made it illegal to obtain a liquor license if you were less than 200 feet from a church. St. Regis was able to prevail in court by maintaining that its main entrance was far enough away not to violate the statue.

The St. Regis was completed and opened on September 4, 1904. Some estimates claim that it cost some (astonishing at the moment) $ 5.5 million. The rooms were completely modern with everything from telephones to heating and electric lighting. However, the fight was not over yet. Liquor law also required that St. Regis need the permission of two thirds of its neighbors to approve the liquor license. In 1904, William Rockefeller quickly bought a neighboring mansion to use it to revoke the St. Regis license. However, J.J. Astor immediately bought another to support him. Stories were published in the newspaper to stain the hotel's reputation, but high-profile visits by the Roosevelts and the Japanese imperial family helped reinforce it. Finally, friends of J.J. Astor in the New York Senate prompted an amendment to the liquor law that exempted hotels with more than 200 rooms. The new law left St. Regis and J.J Astor victorious. However, Astor was not going to enjoy the success of St. Regis for a long time, dying in 1912 aboard the Titanic. His son Vincent would sell the St. Regis to the Duke's Durham Realty company, which expanded it by adding another wing. However, during the great depression, Vincent bought it again for a song and invested money to return it to its former glory (including the installation of the Old King Cole Mural of the Knickerbocker Hotel). Since then, it has been restored and remodeled. times. In 1988, it was closed for three years when Sheraton made a complete restoration. Similarly, Starwood would renovate the hotel again in 2014.