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The Algonquin Hotel is a historic hotel
Hotel

----A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including Bathroom#Types of bathroomss and air conditioning or clima...
 located at 59 West 44th Street in Manhattan
Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
 (New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, New York). The hotel has been designated as a New York City Historic Landmark.

The 174-room hotel, opened in 1902, was designed by architect Goldwin Starrett
Starrett & van Vleck

The architectural firm of Starrett & van Vleck specialized in the design of early 20th century department stores primarily in New York City. The partner Goldwin Starrett had worked for four years in the Chicago office of Daniel Burnham....
. It was originally conceived as a residential hotel but was quickly converted to a traditional lodging establishment. Its first owner-manager, Frank Case
Frank Case

Frank Case was an American hotelier and author. He owned and managed the Algonquin Hotel during the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table and wrote a number of books about his experiences with the hotel and the Round Tablers....
 (who bought the hotel in 1927), established many of the hotel's traditions.






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The Algonquin Hotel is a historic hotel
Hotel

----A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including Bathroom#Types of bathroomss and air conditioning or clima...
 located at 59 West 44th Street in Manhattan
Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
 (New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, New York). The hotel has been designated as a New York City Historic Landmark.

The 174-room hotel, opened in 1902, was designed by architect Goldwin Starrett
Starrett & van Vleck

The architectural firm of Starrett & van Vleck specialized in the design of early 20th century department stores primarily in New York City. The partner Goldwin Starrett had worked for four years in the Chicago office of Daniel Burnham....
. It was originally conceived as a residential hotel but was quickly converted to a traditional lodging establishment. Its first owner-manager, Frank Case
Frank Case

Frank Case was an American hotelier and author. He owned and managed the Algonquin Hotel during the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table and wrote a number of books about his experiences with the hotel and the Round Tablers....
 (who bought the hotel in 1927), established many of the hotel's traditions. Perhaps its best-known tradition is hosting literary and theatrical notables, most prominently the members of the Algonquin Round Table
Algonquin Round Table

The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle," as they dubbed themselves, gathered for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929....
.

History


The Algonquin Hotel was originally designed as an apartment hotel, whose owner planned to rent rooms and suites on year-long leases. When few leases sold, the owner decided to turn it into a hotel which he was originally going to name "The Puritan." Frank Case, upon discovering that the Algonquin
Algonquin

The Algonquins are an aboriginal peoples in Canada/Indigenous people of North American speaking Algonquin language. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Ottawa and Ojibwe, with whom they form the larger Anishinaabe grouping....
 tribe had been the first residents of the area, convinced the owner to christen it "The Algonquin" instead.

Case took over the lease on the hotel in 1907 and bought the property on which the building sat in 1927 for USD $1,000,000. Case remained owner and manager of the hotel until his death in June 1946. In October that year, the Algonquin was purchased by Ben Bodne of Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is a city in Charleston County, South Carolina in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the largest city and county seat of Charleston County....
 for just over USD $1,000,000 who undertook an extensive restoration and renovation effort. Bodne sold the hotel in 1987 to a group of Japanese investors and the Algonquin changed hands a number of times before ending up with Miller Global Properties in 2002. Following a two-year, USD $3,000,000 renovation, the hotel was sold again in 2005 to HEI Hospitality
HEI Hospitality

HEI Hotels & Resorts is a hotel owner/operator, known as the fastest growing in the hotel industry. Started by brothers Gary and Steve Mendell, HEI owns over 30 full service, upper-upscale and luxury hotels and resorts throughout the United States under such well-known brand names as Marriott International, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Embassy...
.

The Alqonquin Round Table



In June 1919 the hotel became the site of the daily meetings of the Algonquin Round Table
Algonquin Round Table

The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle," as they dubbed themselves, gathered for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929....
, a group of journalists, authors, publicists, and actors who gathered to exchange bon mots over lunch in the main dining room. The group met almost daily for the better part of ten years. Some of the core members of the "Vicious Circle" included Robert Benchley
Robert Benchley

Robert Charles Benchley was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. From his beginnings at the Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, and his acclaimed short films, Benchley's style o...
, Heywood Broun
Heywood Broun

Heywood Campbell Broun // was an United States journalist. He worked as a sportswriting, newspaper columnist, and editing in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, now known as The Newspaper Guild....
, Marc Connelly
Marc Connelly

Marcus Cook Connelly was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930....
, Jane Grant
Jane Grant

Jane Grant was a New York City journalist who co-founded The New Yorker with her first husband, Harold Ross.She was born Jeanette Cole Grant in Joplin, Missouri and grew up and went to school in Girard, Kansas....
, Ruth Hale
Ruth Hale (feminist)

Ruth Hale was a freelance writer who worked for women's rights in New York City, USA, during the era before and after World War I. She was married to journalist Heywood Broun and was an associate of the Algonquin Round Table....
, George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman

George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and theatre producer, humorist, and drama critic....
, Neysa McMein
Neysa McMein

Neysa McMein was an United States artist. Born Margery Edna McMein on January 24, 1888, in Quincy, Illinois, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1913 went to New York City....
, Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was an American writer and poet, best known for her caustic wit, wisecracks, and sharp eye for 20th century urban foibles.From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary output in such venues as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group she later...
, Harold Ross
Harold Ross

Harold Wallace Ross was an American journalist and founder of The New Yorker magazine, which he edited from the magazine's inception in 1925 to his death....
, Robert E. Sherwood
Robert E. Sherwood

Robert Emmet Sherwood American playwright, editing, and screenwriter....
 and Alexander Woollcott
Alexander Woollcott

Alexander Humphreys Woollcott was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, and a member of the Algonquin Round Table and the Fortean Society....
.

Hotel traditions


The hotel has a tradition of keeping a cat that has the run of the hotel. The practice dates to the 1930s, when Frank Case took in a stray. Hotel lore says actor John Barrymore
John Barrymore

John Sidney Blyth Barrymore , was an American actor, frequently called the greatest of his generation. He first gained fame as a stage actor, lauded for his portrayals of Hamlet and Richard III ....
 suggested the cat needed a theatrical name, so he was called Hamlet. Decades later, whenever the hotel has a male he carries on the name; females are named Matilda. The current Algonquin cat, a Matilda, is a Ragdoll
Ragdoll

The Ragdollis an American cat breed with a medium-length, silky, rabbit-like coat. It is best known for its docile and placid temperament and affectionate nature....
 who was named 2006 cat of the year at the Westchester (New York) Cat Show. Visitors can spot Matilda on her personal chaise longue
Chaise longue

A chaise longue is an upholstered couch in the shape of a chair that is long enough to support the legs.It is often also called "Wiktionary:chaise lounge" or lounge chair in North America, particularly in the furniture industry....
 in the lobby; she can also be found in her favorite places: behind the computer on the front desk, or lounging on a baggage cart. The doormen feed her and the general manager's executive assistant answers Matilda's e-mail.

Although the Algonquin was "dry" even before Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States

In the history of the United States, Prohibition is the period from 1920 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of Alcoholic beverage for consumption were banned nationally as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution....
 (Case closed the hotel bar in 1917 and had harsh words for those who ran speakeasies
Speakeasy

A speakeasy was an establishment which illegally sold alcoholic beverages during the period of History of the United States known as Prohibition in the United States ....
), nevertheless the hotel does have an eponymous cocktail, composed of rye whiskey, Noilly Prat
Noilly Prat

Noilly Prat, originally a dry white vermouth from Marseillan, H?rault, in the H?rault d?partement of Southern France. Joseph Noilly, a herbalist, developed the first formula in 1813....
 and pineapple
Pineapple

Pineapple is the common name for an edible tropical plant and also its fruit. It is native to the southern part of Brazil, and Paraguay. This herbaceous plant perennial plant grows to tall with 30 or more trough-shaped and pointed leaves long, surrounding a thick plant stem....
 juice. More recently, a newer drink has hit the Algonquin's menu, the "Martini
Martini

Martini may refer to:...
 on the Rock," consisting of a martini of the buyer's choice with a single piece of "ice," a diamond
Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
, at the bottom of the glass.

In keeping with Frank Case's long-standing tradition of sending popovers and celery to the more impoverished members of the Round Table, the Algonquin offers lunch discounts to struggling writers. Formerly, writers on tour could stay one night at the hotel free in exchange for an autographed copy of their book although the practice has been discontinued.

Landmark status

The Algonquin Round Table, as well as the number of other literary and theatrical greats who lodged there, helped earn the hotel its status as a New York City Historic Landmark. The hotel was so designated in 1987. In 1996 the hotel was designated a National Literary Landmark by the Friends of Libraries USA. The organization's bronze plaque is attached to the front of the hotel.

Bibliography

  • James R. Gaines, Wit's End: Days and Nights of the Algonquin Round Table (New York: Harcourt, 1977).


External links