Hotel Seville
22 East 29th Street | also 92 Madison Avenue | NoMad | built 1904
Open on the map15 entries
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1875
Rutgers Presbyterian Church, built here in 1875, later becomes a Masonic hall before the hotel site is sold
Two churches stood on the hotel's corner lot in succession, the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church of 1844 and then Rutgers Presbyterian Church of 1875. Once the Rutgers congregation relocated to the Upper West Side, its 1875 building became the Masonic Scottish Rite Hall. Myer Hellman bought the hall and lot in 1901 for $175,000 and soon resold it to Maitland E. Graves, a railroad promoter from Watertown, New York, who planned the hotel.
“…the location of two successive church buildings: the 1844 Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and the 1875 Rutgers Presbyterian Church.”
- 1903
Developer Maitland Graves goes bankrupt before his hotel on the site is finished
By early 1903 the large hotel Maitland Graves was building at Madison Avenue and 29th Street was mostly complete, but mechanics' liens piled up against it and 20 vendors sued him. He went bankrupt, and a newspaper reported that he had left for Europe. The foreclosed property was bought for $489,000 by Louis C. Raegener, his Columbia classmate P. Henry Dugro and other investors, who opened it in 1904 as the Seville.
- 1904
Actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell checks into the new Seville with her gowns, maid and daughter
Soon after the Seville opened in 1904, the London stage star Mrs. Patrick Campbell, known for roles in plays by Barrie, Shaw and Shakespeare, took rooms there. On September 19, 1904, the Morning Telegraph's gossip column teased that she had arrived with her gowns, maid, accent and daughter, and described the hotel as a select house done in pale yellow on Madison Avenue.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1904
A hallboy is charged with stealing a resident's jewel bag after bringing her lemonade
Days before Mrs. Campbell arrived, the Evening World reported on September 10, 1904 that George Potter, a Seville hallboy, had been arrested for grand larceny. He was accused of taking a sealskin bag of jewelry from a permanent resident, Mrs. Arthur Paton, an invalid who had hidden it under her pillow before napping. The last person she remembered seeing was Potter, who had brought her a glass of lemonade; the gems were worth about $40,000 in today's money.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1907
Louis Raegener adds a through-block annex by his brother-in-law Charles T. Mott
Because of the hotel's early popularity, owner Louis Raegener commissioned his brother-in-law, architect Charles T. Mott, to design a through-block annex on the lots west of the hotel, completed in 1907. It is one story shorter than the corner building but continues its Beaux-Arts design and ornament. The report adds that the biggest draw of the hotel was a big stained-glass dome above the bar, and that Raegener and his wife lived there as permanent residents for 22 years.
- 1908
Detectives besiege a seventh-floor suite at the Seville to arrest a couple charged with mail fraud
On the night of March 11, 1908, detectives and Post Office inspectors kept the usually quiet Seville in an uproar. Frances McLean and her husband, Thomas O'Connor, were charged with using the mails for a swindle run from Wall Street, and they refused to open their seventh-floor door without a warrant. While a messenger fetched warrants, police covered the fire escapes. At 2 a.m. the door opened, and the pair walked through crowded halls, smiling, to the Tombs.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1928
Louis Raegener, who owned the Seville and lived in it for 22 years, dies
Louis C. Raegener, a patent lawyer and real estate investor who completed the Seville in 1904, died in 1928. He and his wife had lived in the hotel as permanent residents for 22 years. She stayed on after his death, while his firm, the Roy Realty Company, kept ownership of the hotel.
“Louis Raegener and his wife lived at the hotel as permanent residents for 22 years. After he died in 1928 she continued to live there…”
- 1946
Roy Realty sells the Seville and its Madison Avenue lots to a syndicate
In 1946 the Roy Realty Company sold the Seville to a syndicate of investors called the Seville Realty Corp. The sale covered the 1904 hotel, the annex and two lots along Madison Avenue that Raegener had bought in 1913. Those two lots later became the site of the hotel's 2005 entrance extension.
“The hotel was sold in 1946 by the Roy Realty Co to a syndicate of investors known as the Seville Realty Corp.”
- 1964
A panel puts the Seville on its list of 183 hotels recommended for World's Fair visitors
In preparation for the 1964 World's Fair, a panel approved the Seville for inclusion on a list of 183 hotels recommended to visitors to New York. According to the landmarks report, the hotel was moderately priced and drew transient guests and permanent residents alike.
- 1985
New York University takes the top six floors as a dormitory as the hotel stops taking guests
By 1985 the Seville had closed to visitors entirely, and New York University rented its top six stories as dormitories for transfer students and freshmen. A new owner bought the building and renovated the rooms, and in 1987 the hotel was renamed the Carlton. It then operated as a single-room-occupancy hotel with rent-regulated apartments into the 1990s.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1997
Remaining rent-regulated residents of the Carlton sue over harassment during renovations
In 1997 some of the 29 rent-regulated residents still living in the Carlton, as the Seville had been renamed, sued its operators. They said they were being harassed while the hotel was renovated to take short-term guests. The city's Department of Buildings responded by revoking some of the hotel's construction permits. Until the 1990s the Carlton had operated as a single-room-occupancy hotel holding 371 rent-regulated units.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
Hotel managers find a glass dome that had been hidden above a dropped ceiling
During the hotel's early-2000s renovation, its managers rediscovered and restored the original glass dome over the first-floor bar. The dome was badly soiled and missing dozens of panes, and no one had realized it survived because a dropped ceiling hid it. The Country restaurant, run by Geoffrey Zakarian, opened in the ground-floor space in October 2005.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
GFI Capital buys the Carlton for $162.1 million and plans to rebrand it as the James NoMad
GFI Capital Resources Group paid $162.1 million for the Carlton in October 2015, buying it from the Wolfson Group and borrowing $153 million toward the price. In November 2016 GFI announced plans to renovate the lobby, rebrand the hotel as the James New York - NoMad and add about 4,500 square feet of retail space. The renovated hotel reopened in February 2018 with the Scarpetta restaurant and the Seville cocktail lounge at its base.
“GFI Capital Resources Group bought the Carlton from the Wolfson Group for $162.1 million. GFI borrowed $153 million to pay for the hotel.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2018
The Landmarks Commission designates the Seville, then the James NoMad, on March 6, 2018
After hearings in February 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the hotel an individual landmark on March 6, 2018. It had reopened that February as the James New York - NoMad, with a Seville cocktail lounge and a Scarpetta restaurant at its base. In the late 2010s the hotel even employed a "witch in residence" offering tarot and astrology readings.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2025
Hyatt buys the former James NoMad and restores the Hotel Seville name
Hyatt bought the hotel in April 2025, relaunching it as Hotel Seville NoMad with redesigned interiors. LuxUrban Hotels had announced in January that it would take a 15-year lease and rebrand the building as the J Hotel by LuxUrban. Early that year a new bar, Il Bar, opened inside, along with a furniture store.
“Hyatt acquired the hotel in April 2025 and rebranded it as Hotel Seville NoMad…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Hotel Seville NoMadWikipedia
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