Lombardy Hotel

109 East 56th Street | also 111 East 56th Street, 115 East 56th Street | East Midtown | built 1927

Open on the map3 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1927

   Developer Henry Mandel opens the Lombardy Hotel

   Henry Mandel hires the firm Farrar & Watmough to design a 21-story hotel with a beige-brick facade drawing on Renaissance Tuscany, complete with setbacks and arched openings. Publisher William Randolph Hearst buys the building before Mandel overextends himself and files for bankruptcy in 1932.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1929

   Novelist Edna Ferber moves into the Lombardy

   Edna Ferber leases an apartment in the newly opened hotel, where she writes the plays Dinner at Eight and Stage Door with George S. Kaufman. Composer Richard Rodgers and his wife also move in around 1930; their daughter Mary Rodgers is born in January 1931 while the family lives on the 19th floor.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1930

   Chef Werner Haechler introduces New Yorkers to Sunday brunch

   In the early 1930s, chef Werner Haechler starts serving a noon-to-4pm buffet in the Lombardy's dining room that he calls brunch, with dishes like sauteed veal and kidneys for $1.25. The idea, also advertised elsewhere as a "bracer breakfast" or "hunt lunch," catches on across the city through the decade.

   Source: Ephemeral New York

Further reading

• Lombardy HotelWikipedia
• The 1927 Lombardy Hotel - 111 East 56th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
• 1930s New York made Sunday brunch very trendyEphemeral New York

Nearby

• Allerton Hotel for Women690 Lexington Avenue | 3 entries
• 425 Park Avenue11 entries
• Ritz Tower465 Park Avenue | 12 entries
• Tower 57135 East 57th Street | 10 entries
• The Galleria117 East 57th Street | 8 entries
• William and Helen Ziegler House116 East 55th Street | 3 entries

All 43 buildings with stories in East Midtown