The Whitby

325 West 45th Street | Hell's Kitchen | built 1924

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.

1924
October 1
Emery Roth's Hotel Whitby opens on West 45th Street
Architect Emery Roth designs a ten-story Renaissance Revival hotel for developer Bing & Bing and the Gresham Realty Company. Construction begins in 1923 and the building opens as a residential hotel on October 1, 1924. Roth models its dramatically recessed entrance on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, a Greek monument he had seen reproduced at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Source: Wikipedia
1935
Vaudeville performer Frank Wallace reveals his secret marriage to Mae West
Frank Wallace, a vaudeville dancer living at the Hotel Whitby, tells reporters in 1935 that he secretly married actress Mae West back in 1911. West denies the marriage at first, but she finally admits to it on July 7, 1937, after Wallace tries to claim a share of her assets. The revelation makes headlines and complicates the sex symbol's carefully built public image.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1988
The Hotel Whitby converts to a cooperative apartment building
After decades as a residential hotel, the Whitby converts to a cooperative apartment building in 1988 through Premiere Marketing Services, turning longtime tenants into shareholders. The ten-story building, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Hell's Kitchen, holds 215 apartments after the conversion and remains a prewar apartment building today.
Source: Wikipedia

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