The Ansonia
230 West 74th Street | also 2109 Broadway, 2103 Broadway, 2101 Broadway | Upper West Side | built 1904
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1899
W. E. D. Stokes starts building the Ansonia residential hotel
William Earle Dodge Stokes set up his own construction company to build the Beaux-Arts hotel, designed by Paul Emile Duboy and built between 1899 and 1903 for $6 million, eight times the budget. Named for his grandfather, the industrialist Anson Greene Phelps, it had about 2,500 rooms in multi-room suites, its own power plant, air filtration and pneumatic tubes. Its thick walls drew musicians such as Enrico Caruso and Arturo Toscanini.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1904
The Ansonia formally opens as a luxury hotel
Designed by French architect Paul E. M. Duboy in an ornate Beaux-Arts style, the Ansonia formally opens as a hotel on April 16, 1904, five years after W. E. D. Stokes began construction and at roughly eight times its original budget, with a final cost of $6 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1907
Health officials end the Ansonia's rooftop farm and its daily egg deliveries
From its early years the Ansonia kept a small menagerie on its roof, with more than 500 chickens plus ducks and goats. Each morning a porter carried fresh eggs down to the tenants. The arrangement lasted until 1907, when the city Health Department put a stop to the rooftop farm. It was one of the odder touches of a hotel whose owner, W. E. D. Stokes, meant it to be the largest, costliest and most ornate in the city.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1919
Chick Gandil holds the meeting that sets off the Black Sox scandal
Chicago White Sox first baseman Chick Gandil held a meeting at the Ansonia in 1919 that set in motion the Black Sox Scandal, in which players conspired to throw that year's World Series. Ballplayers were familiar faces at the hotel; Babe Ruth was among its residents.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1920
New York Yankees players including Babe Ruth live at the Ansonia
During the 1920s the Ansonia becomes a favored address for New York Yankees players, including Babe Ruth, drawn to its residential hotel services and its central Upper West Side location. The building's mix of athletes, opera singers, and actors makes it one of the neighborhood's most talked-about addresses.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1942
Workers strip the Ansonia's copper ornaments for the wartime scrap drive
In September 1942 workers began taking down the hotel's decorative copper cartouches and cornices so the metal could go to the U.S. military, yielding about 100,000 pounds of scrap. Manager Louis Zuch said the city should gather up its useless junk before it started stripping the metal railings from parks. The brine pipes and pneumatic tubes were also pulled from the walls, and the skylight over the main staircase was blacked out.
“In September 1942, workers began removing the Ansonia Hotel's ornamental copper cartouches and copper cornices to provide scrap metal ... This effort produced 100,000 lb…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1968
Steve Ostrow opens the Continental Baths in the Ansonia's basement
The gay bathhouse opened in 1968 and became famous for its stage, where Bette Midler, nicknamed 'Bathhouse Betty,' performed with Barry Manilow at the piano, and where DJs Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan played. Nell Carter, Labelle and the Manhattan Transfer also appeared. Ostrow ended the live shows in 1974, the baths closed in 1976, and in 1977 the space reopened as the swingers' club Plato's Retreat.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1969
Police raid the Continental Baths and arrest 22 patrons
In February 1969, soon after Steve Ostrow opened the gay bathhouse in the Ansonia's basement, New York police raided the Continental Baths. An undercover officer in a towel identified 22 patrons who he said had offered or had sex with him, and they were arrested. Police came back that December and arrested three patrons and three employees. Ostrow later estimated that the baths were raided about 200 times in all.
“In February 1969, the New York City Police raided the Continental Baths. Twenty-two patrons ... were arrested.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1970
The Landmarks Commission hears the Ansonia's owner oppose designation
On April 28, 1970, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held its public hearing on designating the Ansonia. Two people testified in favor and the owner objected. Afterward the commission received 53 letters and petitions carrying about 25,770 signatures for designation, against a single petition with 11 names opposed. In March 1972, citing unusually widespread public support, it designated the hotel anyway, while noting that city records listed 278 outstanding violations, which it judged mostly minor.
- 1970
Bette Midler starts singing at the Continental Baths with Barry Manilow at the piano
In the summer of 1970 Bette Midler began performing at the Continental Baths, the bathhouse in the Ansonia's basement. Her piano accompanist was Barry Manilow, who also played at the club, and she built a core following there. Manilow produced her debut album, The Divine Miss M, in 1972. The nickname Bathhouse Betty followed her, and she titled a 1998 album after it.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1972
Landmarks report names Caruso, Toscanini and Stravinsky among the Ansonia's musical residents
When it designated the Ansonia in 1972, the Landmarks Preservation Commission called the hotel a world-famous home for musicians, thanks to nearly soundproof walls and floors. Its list of past residents included Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, Igor Stravinsky, Geraldine Farrar, Lily Pons and Ezio Pinza, along with theater figures Billie Burke, Florenz Ziegfeld and Sol Hurok and the author Theodore Dreiser. Voice teachers and accompanists of leading singers still worked in the building.
“Among those who have lived there are Leopold Auer, Karin Branzell, Enrico Caruso ... Igor Stravinsky, and Arturo Toscanini.”
- 1972
The city designates the Ansonia a landmark
New York City designates the Ansonia a landmark on March 15, 1972, protecting its ornate facade. The building is added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and converts from a rental building to condominiums in 1992.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1974
Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles start spinning records at the Continental Baths
In 1974 DJs including Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles began playing the Continental Baths in the Ansonia's basement for about $25 a night, mixing with three turntables, a technique they picked up from Nicky Siano. The club had a stage designed specifically for a DJ. Levan later spent a decade as a resident at the Paradise Garage, while Knuckles moved to Chicago and helped develop house music at the Warehouse.
Source: theguardian.com
- 1977
Plato's Retreat, a swingers' club, takes over the Ansonia's basement
In late 1977 a club for heterosexual couples called Plato's Retreat opened in the Ansonia's basement, replacing the Continental Baths. Couples paid a $30 membership fee for a night, and a sex shop opened at street level while men loitered around the building. The club routinely drew more than 250 couples a night but turned away single men.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1990
A plaster ceiling collapses in a ground-floor croissant shop, killing one person
In March 1990 the plaster ceiling of a croissant shop on the Ansonia's ground level collapsed, killing one person and injuring 16 others. Investigators found that the ceiling had been holding up a false ceiling and mechanical equipment added in the 1980s, and that contractors had weakened it by drilling holes for pipes and wiring. The accident came during a rough year for the building, in which a resident had also died in a fire in January.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- The AnsoniaWikipedia
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