The Carlyle
981 Madison Avenue | also 975 Madison Avenue, 35 East 76th Street, 49 East 76th Street | Upper East Side | built 1930
Open on the map11 entries
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.
- 1929
Six brownstones on East 76th Street make way for the Carlyle tower
Before the Carlyle rose on Madison Avenue, six brownstone houses, numbered 37 to 47 East 76th Street, stood on the site of its tower. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's 1981 report on the Upper East Side Historic District dates the hotel to 1929 and calls it the tallest building in the district. The report singles out its towering form and crisp Art Deco detailing.
“Six brownstone houses (Nos. 37-47) formerly stood on the site of the Carlyle.”
- 1929
Sylvan Bien, an Austrian-born architect of hotels and apartment houses, designs the Carlyle
The Landmarks Preservation Commission's biography of Sylvan Bien says he was born in Austria and came to New York in 1916 after working in San Francisco on the Panama-Pacific Exposition. In 1919 he joined the office of Warren & Wetmore, staying until 1923 and helping on the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. He later worked on public housing with Shreve, Lamb & Harmon before opening his own practice, which specialized in apartment buildings, skyscrapers and hotels, among them the Carlyle.
“Born in Austria, Sylvan Bien's first work in this country was in San Francisco, where he assisted on the designs of the Panama-Pacific Exposition.”
- 1930
The Carlyle hotel opens on Madison Avenue
Banker and developer Moses Ginsberg began building the Carlyle in 1928, to designs by Sylvan Bien and Harry M. Prince, with interiors by Dorothy Draper. It opened on November 3, 1930. John F. Kennedy later owned a seven-room apartment on its 34th and 35th floors, where he stayed just before his inauguration in January 1961.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1931
The new hotel falls into foreclosure during the Depression
Developer Moses Ginsberg, who had begun assembling the site in 1928, saw the Carlyle go to a foreclosure auction in December 1931, little more than a year after it opened. The property sold at foreclosure in May 1932 for about $2.655 million to Samuel Telsey, and the Lyleson Corporation took over its operation that year.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1947
Ludwig Bemelmans paints the murals of the hotel bar
In 1947 the illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans began painting murals in the hotel's bar, a job that took him 18 months. The room is now known as Bemelmans Bar. The hotel's Café Carlyle opened in November 1955, and Bobby Short performed there regularly until 2004.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1948
Harry Truman becomes the first president to stay at the Carlyle
Harry S. Truman began using the Carlyle in 1948 on his visits to New York, making him the first U.S. president to stay at the hotel. He walked around the neighborhood each morning. The hotel's standing as a presidential address came only later, once John F. Kennedy lived there, but presidents from Truman to Bill Clinton eventually stayed, and the press nicknamed it the White House of Manhattan.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1955
Café Carlyle opens with murals by Marcel Vertès
The hotel opened Café Carlyle in November 1955, decorated with murals by illustrator Marcel Vertès. Along with the Bemelmans Bar down the hall, the café became one of Manhattan's enduring stages for cabaret performers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1961
John F. Kennedy keeps an apartment at the Carlyle
Kennedy owned a seven-room apartment on the hotel's 34th and 35th floors, where he stayed before his January 1961 presidential inauguration and periodically during his term. The Carlyle's run of presidential guests, from Harry Truman through Bill Clinton, earned it the nickname the "White House of Manhattan."
Source: Wikipedia
- 1968
Bobby Short arrives at the Café Carlyle for a two-week fill-in and stays 35 years
In 1968 Bobby Short was offered a two-week engagement at the Café Carlyle to fill in for George Feyer, who had been a fixture of the room before him. With Beverly Peer on bass and Dick Sheridan on drums, he became an institution there and remained a featured performer for more than 35 years. In 2004 he announced that he would end his regular appearances at the club by the end of that year.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1987
Five partners name their new investment firm after the Carlyle Hotel
In 1987 five partners with backgrounds in finance and government, among them William Conway, Stephen Norris, David Rubenstein and Daniel D'Aniello, founded a boutique investment bank. They took the name from the Carlyle Hotel, where Norris and Rubenstein had planned the venture. The firm became known as The Carlyle Group.
“The founding partners named the firm after the Carlyle Hotel in New York City (named for Thomas Carlyle) where Norris and Rubenstein had planned the new investment business.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2007
The Café Carlyle is saved from a plan to turn its space into a basement nightclub
The 2007 renovation of the Café Carlyle began with a plan to put a nightclub in the basement and give up the cabaret room. General manager James McBride objected, calling the cafe an institution that people loved. Interior designer Scott Salvator finished the job in under three months, adding new technology while keeping the 1955 look of the room, where performers such as Eartha Kitt had played.
Source: Internet Archive
Further reading
- Carlyle HotelWikipedia
Nearby
- The Mark Hotel992 Madison Avenue | 5 entries
- Clarence Whitman Mansion7 East 76th Street | 3 entries
- Breuer Building (945 Madison Avenue)945 Madison Avenue | 13 entries
- Stuyvesant Fish House1012 Madison Avenue | 9 entries
- Lenox Hill Hospital861 Park Avenue | 10 entries
- 960 Fifth Avenue960 5th Avenue | 9 entries