Park Central Hotel

870 7th Avenue | also 201 West 55th Street, 200 West 56th Street | Midtown | built 1925

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

  1. 1927

    June 12

    Harry Lanzer opens the Park Central on the site of New York's first apartment hotel

    Harry A. Lanzer built the Park Central, a Renaissance Revival hotel that opened on June 12, 1927. It replaced the Van Corlear, designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh and built in 1879, which was New York's first apartment hotel and was demolished in 1921. Sheraton bought it from Lanzer in 1948.

    “The Park Central Hotel was built by Harry A. Lanzer and opened on June 12, 1927.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1928

    November 4

    Arnold Rothstein is shot at the Park Central and refuses to name his killer

    On November 4, 1928, a phone call at Lindy's summoned the gambler Arnold Rothstein to the Park Central, reportedly to Room 349. Within an hour he was found bleeding from a bullet in the abdomen at a hotel service door. At Polyclinic Hospital he told Detective Patrick Floyd that Floyd knew him better than to ask who shot him. Rothstein died on November 6, and the case was never solved, though prosecutors charged his gambling friend George McManus.

    Source: themobmuseum.org

  3. 1933

    June 29

    Fatty Arbuckle dies of a heart attack at the hotel at 46

    The silent-film comedian Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle died early on June 29, 1933, at the Park Central, at age 46. Arbuckle had begun in movies in 1913 at Keystone, and once rivaled Charlie Chaplin for audiences. After he was cleared of manslaughter in San Francisco in 1922, he worked on the edges of Hollywood, even directing a picture under the pseudonym Will B. Good.

    Source: sfgate.com

  4. 1948

    Sheraton buys the hotel from Harry Lanzer and renames it the Park-Sheraton

    Harry Lanzer, who built the Park Central and opened it on June 12, 1927, sold it to the Sheraton chain in 1948. The hotel became the Park-Sheraton. In 1972 Sheraton renamed it the New York Sheraton Hotel.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1950

    Eleanor Roosevelt takes a suite at the hotel, joining a roll of famous residents

    Eleanor Roosevelt kept a suite at the hotel from 1950 to 1953. Mae West also stayed there, and Jackie Gleason lived at the hotel in 1955 and 1956 while he filmed The Honeymooners. By then Sheraton owned the building, which had been renamed the Park-Sheraton after the 1948 sale.

    “Eleanor Roosevelt, who kept a suite there from 1950 to 1953.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1950

    Irving Fields and his trio begin 16 years in the hotel's Mermaid Room

    The Mermaid Room opened in the late 1940s as the hotel's cocktail bar and nightclub. Irving Fields and his trio performed in the room from 1950 until 1966, sixteen years in all.

    “Irving Fields and his trio played there from 1950 to 1966.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 1955

    Jackie Gleason lives at the hotel while filming The Honeymooners

    Jackie Gleason lived at the hotel in 1955 and 1956, the period when he was filming The Honeymooners. The hotel's guest list also included Mae West.

    “Jackie Gleason lived at the hotel from 1955-1956, while filming The Honeymooners.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 1957

    October 25

    Albert Anastasia is shot dead in the hotel barbershop with a TV camera nearby

    At about 10:15 a.m. on October 25, 1957, two short, stout men in fedoras and sunglasses walked into the Park Sheraton barbershop and shot Albert Anastasia, the Murder Incorporated boss, with .38 revolvers while his barber trimmed his hair. Gabe Pressman, who reached the scene minutes afterward and later wrote that he was the only newsman there with a TV camera, asked the chief of detectives for a motive. Chief James Leggett replied sarcastically that somebody did not like him.

    Source: nbcnewyork.com

  9. 1980

    The NFL holds its annual player draft at the hotel through 1985

    From 1980 to 1985 the hotel hosted the National Football League Draft. Sheraton sold the building in 1983 for $60 million, and under new ownership it became the Omni Park Central in January 1984. After developer Ian Bruce Eichner bought it in 1995, it went back to its original name.

    “The hotel was the venue for the National Football League Draft from 1980 to 1985.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  10. 1995

    Ian Bruce Eichner buys the hotel and turns half its rooms into a timeshare

    In 1995 the developer Ian Bruce Eichner bought the hotel, which left the Omni chain and went back to its original name, Park Central Hotel. Eichner turned half of its 1,450 rooms into the Manhattan Club, an all-suite timeshare of 266 units on the north side of the building at 200 West 56th Street.

    “The hotel was sold to developer Ian Bruce Eichner in 1995 and left the Omni chain…”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown