Iroquois Hotel

49 West 44th Street | also 47 West 44th Street | Midtown | built 1900

Open on the map10 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1865

   Two grain merchants build four stables on West 44th Street, including the one now beside the hotel

   In 1865 the grain merchants Andrew Luke and Benjamin Jones speculated on the houses rising above 42nd Street by building four abutting stables at 43 through 49 West 44th Street. The Times later said the block became known as Stable Street. Wedworth Clarke bought the new carriage house at No. 47, the two-story building that survives beside the Iroquois Hotel.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1900

   Seaboard Realty completes the twelve-story Iroquois Hotel

   Seaboard Realty Company filed plans in June 1899 for a twelve-story hotel on West 44th Street; a report that September put the cost at $250,000 to build and $150,000 to furnish. Construction finished in 1900, and Seaboard sold the completed hotel that December for roughly $325,000.

   Source: Wikipedia

3. 1911

   July 26

   A bellboy kills a guest and later serves 68 years in prison for it

   Seventeen-year-old bellboy Paul Geidel entered the room of elderly, hard-of-hearing resident William Jackson on July 26, 1911, suffocated him with a chloroform-soaked rag, and robbed him. Geidel was convicted and imprisoned until 1980, when he was released after 68 years, making his sentence one of the longest ever served in an American prison.

   Source: Ephemeral New York

4. 1917

   The Twelfth Night Club, the country's first theatrical women's group, settles in the old carriage house at No. 47

   In 1917 the Twelfth Night Club made the red-brick carriage house at 47 West 44th Street its clubhouse, moving from rented space above the Berkeley Lyceum. Actresses Alice Fischer, Vida Croly and Eleanor T. Tyndale had founded the club in 1889 to foster friendly relations among members of the dramatic profession. It had grown to 150 members, and it remodeled the interiors into a comfortable clubhouse.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

5. 1919

   A school of lip-reading takes space in the Twelfth Night Club's clubhouse

   In 1919 the Twelfth Night Club gave part of its building at 47 West 44th Street to Mary Dugane, who had founded her School of Lip-Reading in 1908. She advertised that people growing deaf could be taught to follow conversation by watching a speaker's face. By 1922 the school was still sharing the space and had become the Muller-Walle School of Lip-Reading.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

6. 1942

   November

   The Iroquois Hotel is auctioned off to settle a $230,000 debt

   In November 1942 the Iroquois Hotel was sold at auction to settle a $230,000 debt. Two years earlier William H. Peterken of the Iroquois Hotel Corporation had taken a ten-year lease, when the hotel could house 350 people a night. In 1944 the federal Office of Price Administration accused the operators of overcharging rent.

   “The hotel was auctioned off in November 1942 to settle a $230,000 debt.”

   Source: Wikipedia

7. 1951

   James Dean lives at the Iroquois while starting his acting career

   Actor James Dean rented a room at the Iroquois Hotel, later identified as room 803, for about two years starting in 1951 while he worked to break into New York theater and television. He left the hotel in 1953, not long before his breakthrough film roles.

   Source: Wikipedia

8. 1953

   The Twelfth Night Club's old clubhouse becomes a restaurant with offices upstairs

   In 1953 the former carriage house at 47 West 44th Street, long the home of the Twelfth Night Club, was remade with a restaurant at street level and offices and conference rooms upstairs. The two-story Victorian building stood oddly among the multistory clubs and office buildings lining the block. A very narrow restaurant called The Belcrep took the place of the actresses' clubhouse.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

9. 1987

   Jan Wallman launches a cabaret and nightclub in the hotel building

   In 1987 Jan Wallman started a cabaret and nightclub in the hotel building at 49 West 44th Street. In the hotel's renovation after Shimmie Horn took over in 1996, a cabaret called Judy's on the main building's ground floor was combined with Alonzo's Restaurant in the adjoining former stable.

   Source: Wikipedia

10. 1996

    Shimmie Horn spends $13 million refurbishing the Iroquois two floors at a time

    In 1996 Shimmie Horn took over the Iroquois, which his family had owned since 1959, and spent $13 million to renovate it so it could compete with the Algonquin, Sofitel and Royalton. Instead of closing, the hotel was redone two floors at a time. A second elevator shaft was demolished to make room for more guest rooms, and a library replaced the lobby barber shop.

    “Shimmie Horn spent $13 million to renovate the hotel so it could better compete with the Algonquin, Sofitel, and Royalton.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

• The Iroquois New YorkWikipedia
• The Out-of-Place Stables at No. 47 West 44th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
• A 44th Street stable built in 1865 is a survivorEphemeral New York
• Bellboy murders guest at the Iroquois HotelEphemeral New York

Nearby

• Algonquin Hotel59 West 44th Street | 14 entries
• Sofitel New York45 West 44th Street | 6 entries
• New York Yacht Club Building37 West 44th Street | 9 entries
• Cassa Hotel & Residences66 West 45th Street | 1 entry
• Webster Hotel40 West 45th Street | 2 entries
• Royalton Hotel44 West 44th Street | 8 entries

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown