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MURRAY HILL HOTEL MURRAY HILL HOTEL:
SPIRAL Murray Hill Hotel,
Entrance, variant image 1 Built in 1884, the 600-room Murray Hill Hotel offered its guests the ultimate in modern convenience, including a steam elevator and electric lights on the first two floors. Its superb location near the homes of many of the city's most prominent citizens and the central railroad depot added to its success. During its glory years, the hotel counted among its habitues Mark Twain, Grover Cleveland, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan, who walked from his nearby home to drink coffee and smoke cigars in the lobby. In 1910, Benjamin Bates, a former night clerk, purchased the hotel, refused repeatedly to sell it, and, except for updating the plumbing, resisted modernization. By Abbott's day, the "Old Lady" stood as an eloquent reminder of a bygone era; its food, according to Abbott, remained excellent. (McQuaid, 389). Murray Hill Hotel,
Room Interior, variant image 2 Abbott photographed the hotel in 1935, shortly after Bates' death inspired rumors of its sale. Disregarding the familiar postcard view which showed the squat bulk of the block-long building, Abbott concentrated on details, showing the Park Avenue entrance (Abbott File 41 and variant 1), a room interior (variant 2), and the circular balconies on the south facade (Abbott File 37 and variant 3). The entrance photographs were made shortly before the 1936 construction of the Park Avenue viaduct, which rises above street level to wrap around the Grand Central Terminal. Standing in the street, Abbott showed the entrance's heavy colonnade, old street lamps, and gigantic American flags. In a variant taken from the sidewalk, the Grand Central Terminal (1913) and the New York Central Building (1929; now the Helmsley Building) can be seen in the background. Although many rooms retained Victorian furnishings, the furniture in Abbott's photograph is contemporary; the enormous gilt-framed mirror over the mantel might have been original. Murray Hill Hotel,
variant image 3 In the two photographs of the 40th Street facade, Abbott contrasted the hotel's graceful circular balconies with the neighborhood's sleek skyscrapers. In a variant image (3), the Chanin Building (1929) and the Chrysler Building (1930) on Lexington Avenue peek out from behind Park Avenue office buildings. In Murray Hill Hotel: Spiral, Abbott made her point more elegantly by filling the right side of the composition with the hotel's "spiraling" balconies and the left side with the geometric setbacks of 22 East 40th Street, a 45-story skyscraper built in 1931. Although many artists rendered the balconies of the hotel, the balconies were not original; they were added later as fire escapes. Sold in 1943, the Murray Hill Hotel survived until 1947, when it was demolished for 100 Park Avenue, a 36-story office tower. Return to the Middle East Side |
