Royalton Hotel

44 West 44th Street | also 47 West 43rd Street | Midtown | built 1900

Open on the map8 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1898

    Rossiter & Wright open the Royalton as a bachelor apartment hotel

    Architects Rossiter & Wright complete the 13-story Royalton Hotel at 44 West 44th Street in 1898, developed by civil engineer Edward G. Bailey for a project costing $750,000. Faced in brick, stone, terracotta and iron, the building rents its 90 apartments to unmarried men of means on a stretch of West 44th Street known as Club Row for its cluster of alumni clubhouses.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1900

    January 23

    Edmund Randolph hosts the Count and Countess de Castellane and the Goulds at a Royalton supper

    After attending the Lyceum Theatre on January 23, 1900, the Count and Countess de Castellane were guests of Edmund Randolph at a "little supper" at the Royalton. Also at the table were Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Smith and Mr. and Mrs. George J. Gould. The hotel's restaurant was drawing New York society.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1904

    Sightseeing coaches roll down 44th Street, shouting out the Royalton on Rubberneck Row

    By 1904 tourist observation coaches turned from Fifth Avenue into West 44th Street, where a guide with a megaphone announced Rubberneck Row. For about four minutes passengers turned their heads from side to side past the Harvard and Yale clubs, the Century, the Yacht Club, the bar association clubhouse, the Royalton and the Algonquin.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1977

    Novelist Ben Haas, author of more than 100 novels, dies in his Royalton room

    Ben Haas, who wrote more than 100 novels, died in his room at the Royalton in 1977. Theater people had long lived at the hotel: the drama critic George Jean Nathan, known as the dean of Broadway drama critics, and the humorist Robert Benchley both kept apartments there.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1988

    October

    Jeffrey Chodorow holds the Royalton restaurant's liquor license because Rubell and Schrager are felons

    When the Royalton reopened, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager could not hold a liquor license because they had been convicted of felonies. Jeffrey Chodorow obtained the license for the hotel's 100-seat restaurant, 44, where Geoffrey Zakarian was hired as executive chef.

    “Jeffrey Chodorow obtained the liquor license for the hotel's 100-seat restaurant, as Rubell and Schrager had been convicted of felonies and were thus banned from holding liquor licenses.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1988

    October 10

    Ian Schrager and Philippe Starck reopen the Royalton as a boutique hotel

    After a $40 million renovation designed by Philippe Starck with Gruzen Samton Steinglass Architects, a group of investors that includes Ian Schrager reopens the Royalton on October 10, 1988. The renovation converts the building's 90 former bachelor apartments into 205 guest rooms, launching the hotel as a new boutique property.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2001

    After September 11, Ian Schrager houses displaced Lower Manhattan residents at the Royalton

    After the September 11 attacks, Ian Schrager put displaced Lower Manhattan residents up at the Royalton on a temporary basis. He also had to cut nightly room rates sharply.

    “After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Schrager used the Royalton to temporarily house displaced Lower Manhattan residents, and he had to drastically reduce nightly room rates.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2007

    Roman and Williams redesign the Royalton's lobby

    Owner Morgans Hotel Group spends $20.2 million on a 2007 renovation of the Royalton, with designers Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams redoing the lobby. The hotel reopens on October 23, 2007, updating Philippe Starck's 1988 design nearly two decades after it first transformed the building into a boutique hotel.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

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