Omni Berkshire Place
500 Madison Avenue | also 21 East 52nd Street | Midtown | built 1926
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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.
- 1883
Eight millionaires' syndicate completes the nine-story Berkshire, a Queen Anne co-op
The Berkshire Apartment Association was formed in 1881 by eight millionaires, among them Fletcher Harper of the publishing house and Edward M. Shepard of the furniture firm Stickney & Shepard. Architect Carl Pfeiffer designed the nine-story Queen Anne building at 500 Madison Avenue, finished in 1883. It held 17 apartments, with shareholders expected to occupy some and rent out the others. This earlier Berkshire stood on the site of the present hotel.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1887
A visitor's dress catches in the Berkshire's elevator, killing her
On November 18, 1887, Winifred Egan went to visit a friend at the Berkshire apartment house, but her dress was caught as the elevator passed a floor. The Sun reported that she died of her injuries. A coroner's jury on January 20, 1888 faulted the building's proprietors for hiring an elevator boy who was not up to the job. This was the earlier Berkshire apartment building on the site.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1900
William Marsh Rice, future founder of Rice University, is found dead here
Houston businessman William Marsh Rice lived in the Berkshire, an earlier apartment building on this site. His valet found him dead in bed on September 23, 1900, and an autopsy pointed to arsenic and mercury poisoning. The valet and Rice's wife's former lawyer, Albert T. Patrick, were arrested for murder, and Patrick was sentenced to death in 1905 before the sentence was commuted. Rice's fortune went to found the institute in Houston that became Rice University.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1913
The Berkshire is modernized and loses its Queen Anne details
In August 1913 The Sun reported that the Berkshire apartment house at 500 Madison Avenue was being altered and modernized. The work stripped away its oriels, gables and half-timbering, so that the building looked as if it had been put up a year earlier. For about another decade it remained a home to wealthy families. This was the earlier apartment house on the site, before the 1926 hotel.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1926
Warren & Wetmore's Berkshire Hotel opens at Madison and 52nd Street
Architects Warren & Wetmore designed the Berkshire Hotel, which opened in 1926 as a residential hotel ten stories tall on a plot of 100 by 62 feet. Two years later J.C. and M.G. Mayer took a 21-year lease on the hotel, with plans to renovate it.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1938
Norman Bel Geddes designs the Elbow Room, later the Barberry Room, at the hotel
Critic Alexander Woollcott founded an exclusive private dining club at the hotel, and Norman Bel Geddes designed it. It opened in 1938 as the Elbow Room and was later renamed the Barberry Room, which had a reputation as the most exclusive restaurant in the city. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the musical Oklahoma! in a suite later named for them, and Alfred Hitchcock was a regular guest.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1960
Salvador Dali paints an abstract impression of nymphs in the Barberry Room as diners watch
Salvador Dali dined in the Barberry Room in 1960 and objected to a Bouguereau painting of a satyr and nymphs on its wall. He reportedly arranged to swap one of his own nymph paintings for it, then returned days later to paint an abstract impression of nymphs on a seven-foot canvas as diners watched, using a rubber cap on his head. The canvas hung for a time, was moved to a linen closet, and by 1979 had disappeared.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1978
New owners evict Ethel Merman, who had lived at the Berkshire for many years
Dunfey Hotels, a subsidiary of Aer Lingus, bought the Berkshire in 1977 for $9.7 million, the first New York hotel run by the chain. In 1978 the new owners evicted Ethel Merman, a longtime resident of the hotel, saying they did not want permanent residents. A $9 million renovation followed, and the hotel reopened in June 1979 as Berkshire Place.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1983
The hotel is renamed Omni Berkshire Place
Dunfey Hotels bought the hotel in 1977 and reopened it in 1979 after a $9 million renovation. It acquired the Omni Hotels chain in 1983, and the hotel was soon renamed Omni Berkshire Place. Omni bought the property outright in March 1992 for $83.5 million, and a $50 million renovation in 1995 cut it from 415 rooms to 395.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2021
Omni reverses a decision to close the hotel for good and reopens it
Omni closed the hotel indefinitely in early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and fired 268 staff members. In June 2020 it announced the closure was permanent, with the owner considering conversion to offices. In October 2021 the owners reversed course and reopened, after a city law required severance for workers at hotels that stayed closed. Omni's president said reopening was cheaper than paying the severance.
“In October 2021, the owners reversed their plans and reopened the hotel.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Omni Berkshire PlaceWikipedia
- The Berkshire Apartments - 500 Madison AvenueDaytonian in Manhattan
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