Grand Hotel

1230 Broadway | also 1234 Broadway, 40 West 31st Street, 38 West 31st Street | Midtown South | built 1868

Open on the map9 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

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

  1. 1868

    Carpet merchant Elias S. Higgins builds the Grand Hotel at Broadway and 31st Street

    In 1868 carpet manufacturer Elias S. Higgins built the Grand Hotel to designs by Henry Engelbert, as Broadway between Madison and Herald Squares was becoming a theater and hotel district. Neighbors included the Albemarle, St. James, Victoria and Gilsey House hotels, and side-street vice would earn the area the nickname Tenderloin. Engelbert designed Higgins's Grand Central Hotel, opened in 1870 as the largest hotel in the United States, the year after the Grand.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1868

    Henry Engelbert gives the Grand a white marble front, mansard roof and cut corner

    Engelbert drew on the hotel particuliers then lining the streets of Paris, giving the Grand five stories of white marble above a cast-iron ground floor of slender columns and wide shop windows. A two-story mansard roof crowns the building. He cut the Broadway and 31st Street corner at an angle, so each upper floor has a window looking up Broadway. Higgins intended it as a residential family hotel with a big communal dining room.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1870

    Henry Milford Smith leases the Grand and runs it as a 233-room house

    In 1870 Henry Milford Smith took over the hotel on a lease. An 1884 book on New York's industries praised him as the popular and enterprising proprietor and said the hotel had 233 rooms, with his son Dinwiddie Smith helping to manage it. Intended at first as a residential hotel, the Grand later began accepting transient guests as the theater district moved north toward Times Square.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1882

    Oscar Wilde stays a few days at the Grand during his American lecture tour

    In 1882 Oscar Wilde was drawn to America by producer Richard D'Oyly Carte to give talks on art and so promote Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience. His New York visit included a few days at the Grand Hotel. He also sat for photographer Napoleon Sarony at his Union Square studio, and the widely seen pictures boosted his image as an aesthete. The tour brought him fame, heavy press coverage and a good deal of money.

    Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project

  5. 1904

    George F. Hurlbert renames the hotel the New Grand and redecorates it in 'Moorish' style

    In 1904 the hotel was renamed the New Grand Hotel under owner George F. Hurlbert, who also ran hotels in Jamestown, New York, and Sharon, Pennsylvania. He redecorated the interior thoroughly, giving it an updated Moorish look that included a Moorish Lounge. Advertised rates in 1920 ran from $2 for a single room with running water to $5.50 for a double with bath.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1957

    Once a fine hotel, the Grand becomes the Milner and loses its cast-iron ground floor

    By World War II the blocks around Broadway and 31st Street had changed, with many neighboring grand hotels converted to commercial lofts. The New Grand became the Milner Hotel, with nightly rates of $1.00 to $1.50. A 1957 remodeling of the entire ground floor tore out the ornate cast-iron and glass entrance.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  7. 1979

    September 11

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Grand Hotel a city landmark

    After hearings on March 13 and May 8, 1979, at which three witnesses spoke in favor and none opposed, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Grand Hotel at 1232-1238 Broadway on September 11. Its report calls the marble building with its mansard roof a sophisticated example of the French Second Empire style, and the landmark site is Block 832, Lot 66.

    “A total of 3 witnesses spoke in favor of designation. There were no speakers in opposition to designation.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  8. 1983

    The Grand Hotel is added to the National Register of Historic Places

    Designed by Henry Engelbert in the Second Empire style and built in 1868, the hotel joins the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, four years after the city designated it a landmark.

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 1987

    Owners paint the landmarked marble facade without permission

    The Grand was designated a New York City landmark in 1979, but by the 1980s it had declined to a single-room-occupancy hotel. In 1987 its owners painted the marble facade and slate roof without prior approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. In 1993 an owner's vice president told the Times they painted it to protect the building. Removing the paint risked damaging the stone, so the commission hired conservators to test the surface.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 20 buildings with stories in Midtown South