Gramercy Park Hotel
2 Lexington Avenue | Gramercy | built 1924
Open on the map10 entries
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.
- 1925
Bing & Bing open the Gramercy Park Hotel
Developers Bing & Bing opened the Gramercy Park Hotel in 1925 on land once owned by architect Stanford White, designed by Robert T. Lyons in the Renaissance Revival style. A westward extension along Gramercy Park North, by the firm Thompson & Churchill, followed in 1929 and 1930.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1926
Humphrey Bogart marries actress Helen Menken at the hotel
Humphrey Bogart, then a young Broadway actor playing supporting parts, had met the actress Helen Menken in 1922 while appearing in Drifting at the Playhouse Theatre. They married at the Gramercy Park Hotel on May 20, 1926. The marriage was brief: they divorced on November 18, 1927, and remained friends.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1973
David Bowie's crew takes over the third floor, earning the hotel the nickname Glamercy
In February 1973 David Bowie was in New York promoting The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, with his next album, Aladdin Sane, on the way. After a money-losing first American tour, RCA booked him and a crew of more than a hundred into the hotel instead of the Plaza, and they took over the third floor for two weeks. His management let almost no one photograph him, and a cherry picker eventually rose outside his low-floor window to get the shot. The stay cemented the hotel's reputation among bands and gave it the nickname the Glamercy.
Source: rollingstone.com
- 1974
High Times magazine holds its founding party at the hotel, complete with nitrous oxide balloons
High Times magazine held its founding party at the Gramercy in 1974. Co-founder Andy Kowl remembered five-foot tanks of nitrous oxide and balloons printed with a mushroom, and reporters from CBS, NBC and the Daily News came. The journalists were skeptical at first, but by the end of the night nearly every one of them was standing in line to have a balloon refilled.
Source: rollingstone.com
- 1975
Bob Dylan makes the hotel his base for the Rolling Thunder Revue while Lou Reed finishes an album
Bob Dylan stayed at the Gramercy for several weeks in 1975 while preparing the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, recruiting players from the Bitter End and holding the first rehearsals in the hotel until the band outgrew it. He also wrote lyrics late at night that became part of Desire. At the same time Lou Reed lived in Room 605 and worked on Coney Island Baby, turning down Dylan's offer to join the tour.
Source: rollingstone.com
- 1975
Part of Saturday Night Live's first cast stays at the hotel
When Saturday Night Live premiered in 1975, part of its original cast stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel, adding to the hotel's reputation with musicians and performers. Bandleader Paul Shaffer liked it enough to keep living in the annex for another sixteen years.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1980
U2 checks in on an early club tour and meets its idols the Clash
In December 1980 U2, just out with its debut album Boy, came to the United States on a club tour, the first visit for most of the band, and checked into the Gramercy. Bono later recalled the limousine ride from the airport and the snow outside. The stay brought the band's first meeting with its idols the Clash, who were staying there too. Bono recalled the Slits being there as well, and said their singer Ari Up slapped away Edge's offered handshake.
Source: rollingstone.com
- 1981
The Clash stay through their 17-show Times Square residency, and Martin Scorsese meets the band at the hotel
When the Clash played a 17-show residency at Bond's International Casino in Times Square in 1981, they stayed at the Gramercy, and their presence made the bar livelier than usual. Martin Scorsese first met the band at the hotel and later proposed a minor role for them in The King of Comedy. He and Robert De Niro attended one of the Bond's concerts.
Source: rollingstone.com
- 2003
Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen buy the hotel and bring in Julian Schnabel
Opened in 1925 to designs by Robert T. Lyons, the hotel once housed Joseph P. Kennedy's family, including young John F. Kennedy, and Babe Ruth drank at its bar. Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy lived there in the 1940s, and S. J. Perelman died in his room in 1979. Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen bought it in 2003, and the painter Julian Schnabel designed its new interiors and furniture. The hotel closed in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2022
A public liquidation sale clears out the hotel's furnishings, drawing about 1,000 shoppers a day
In autumn 2022 auctioneers liquidated the hotel's furnishings and artwork, first in a private sale and then open to the public. The auction house said roughly 1,000 people came each day, and the queue ran past the Lexington Avenue corner and along Gramercy Park North. Prices ran from a dollar for stationery to about $5,000 for a piece of art, with a red studded mirror at $500.
Source: businessinsider.com
Further reading
- Gramercy Park HotelWikipedia
Nearby
- 121 East 22nd122 East 23rd Street | 1 entry
- Calvary Church277 Park Avenue South | 9 entries
- James Harper House4 Gramercy Park West | 3 entries
- Church Missions House281 Park Avenue South | 10 entries
- United Charities Building287 Park Avenue South | 3 entries
- Breese Carriage House150 East 22nd Street | 3 entries