White House Hotel

338 Bowery | NoHo | built 1917

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.

1928
The Ghelardi family expands the White House Hotel and gives it one unified facade
The Ghelardi family began operating the hotel at 340 Bowery around 1916-17. In 1928-29 they extended it south to take in 338 Bowery and built the unified brick facade with a blind arcade. Many Bowery flophouses gave a choice of dormitory cot or cubicle; the White House offered the more private cubicles. The name is said to come from a whites-only policy that lasted much of its history.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1998
The Ghelardi family sells the White House Hotel after decades of running it
Mike Ghelardi took over from an uncle in 1980, and by 1996 was driving a limousine on the side to help keep the hotel afloat. In 1998 he became the last Ghelardi to be involved when he sold it to the attorney Meyer Muschel. It then passed in 2007 to Metro Sixteen Hotel LLC for $7.8 million.
Source: bedfordandbowery.com
2014
September 3
The White House Hotel stops taking guests
According to its website, the hotel had reopened in 2011 after $100,000 in renovations and was advertising rooms from $30 a night. On September 3, 2014 it shut to outsiders, with a paper sign saying the closure was temporary. Proposals to convert it to a nine-story or ten-story hotel had been turned down.
Source: bedfordandbowery.com

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