Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Hotel Times Square

I guess that Hotel Times Square has a better ring to it than Hotel Claman, but it's not nearly as distinctive. I appreciate that the sender of this card marked the room where he stayed though.

This was a new hotel when the sender stayed here in 1925, but years later it became a welfare hotel. In 1922, The New York Times reported that the hotel was to be built at a cost of $1,500,000 and would provide accommodations for 'men only' for a proposed price of $9-$14 per week.  It is currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is rented as efficiency apartments, but for a lot more than $9-$14 per week.

I wonder if the recipient of the card, Frank Yates, was the famous sculler from Cornell.

The message reads:
Hello Dick, Am spending a couple of Red Hot weeks down here making some water grant surveys. made one at Poughkeepsie last week + have some on L. I this week. took a boat trip down to Atlantic Highlands N.J. today trying to cool off but didn't have any chills on the water. This is the hotel where I am staying + have fine accommodations. Regards to the boys HSB (?)

5 comments:

  1. Its funny how X marks the room. I have had a number of hotel postcards with the room marked. Some might think it as a flaw to the postcard.
    Judy

    ReplyDelete
  2. It seems that lots of those old grand hotels wound up becoming welfare hotels. They invariably had to hit rock-bottom before they would be recognized as historic landmarks. I guess it would make too much sense to keep them maintained and vital before they hit the skids.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Right around the corner from the old NY Times bldg, where my dad worked. I thought this might have been the Milford Plaza, but maybe not...

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails