The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is a famous luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a 47 story, 625 ft. (191 m) Art Deco landmark, designed by architects Schultze and Weaver and dating from 1931. The Waldorf Astoria New York is a member of Hilton's Luxury and Lifestyle Brands along with The Waldorf=Astoria Collection, Conrad Hotels & Resorts and Denizen Hotels. The Waldorf Astoria brand consists of the Waldorf Astoria in New York and The Waldorf Astoria Orlando.
The hotel is now branded as the Waldorf=Astoria, with a double hyphen, but originally a single hyphen was employed between "Waldorf" and "Astoria," as recalled by a popular expression and song, "Meet Me at the Hyphen".
The modern hotel has three American and classic European restaurants, and the world renowned Kenneth's Salon (http://www.kennethsalon.com) located off the main lobby. Several boutiques surround the lobby. A "hotel within a hotel" in its upper section is known as The Waldorf Towers operated by Conrad Hotels & Resorts.
The hotel has its own railway platform as part of Grand Central Terminal, used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, and Douglas MacArthur, among others. An elevator large enough for Franklin D. Roosevelt's automobile provides access to the platform.
Its name is ultimately derived from Walldorf in Germany and the prominent German-American Astor family, that originated there.
History
An Astor family feud contributed to the events which led to the construction of the original Waldorf-Astoria on Fifth Avenue.
It started as two hotels: one owned by William Waldorf Astor, whose 13-story Waldorf Hotel was opened in 1893 and the other owned by his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, called the Astoria Hotel and opened four years later in 1897, four stories higher.
William Astor, motivated in part by a dispute with his aunt, Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, built the original Waldorf Hotel next door to her house, on the site of his father's mansion and today's Empire State Building. The hotel was built to the specifications of founding proprietor George Boldt; he and his wife Louise had become known as the owners and operators of the Bellevue, an elite boutique hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Broad Street, subsequently expanded and renamed the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel. Boldt continued to own the Bellevue (and, later, the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel) even after his relationship with the Astors blossomed.
William Astor's construction of a hotel next to his aunt's house worsened his feud with her, but, with Boldt's help, John Astor persuaded his aunt to move uptown. John Astor then built the Astoria Hotel and leased it to Boldt. Initially foreseen as two separate entities, Boldt had planned the new structure so it could be connected to the old by means that became known as Peacock Alley. The combined Waldorf-Astoria became the largest hotel in the world at the time, while maintaining the original Waldorf's high standards.
The Waldorf-Astoria is historically significant for transforming the contemporary hotel, then a facility for transients, into a social center of the city as well as a prestigious destination for visitors and a part of popular culture. The Waldorf-Astoria was influential in advancing the status of women, who were admitted singly without escorts. Founding proprietor, George C. Boldt, became wealthy and prominent internationally, if not so much a popular celebrity as his famous employee, Oscar Tschirky, "Oscar of the Waldorf." Boldt built one of American's most ambitious houses, Boldt Castle, on one of the Thousand Islands. George Boldt's wife, Louise Kehrer Boldt, was influential in evolving the idea of the grand urban hotel as a social center, particularly in making it appealing to women as a venue for social events.
When the new skyscraper Waldorf-Astoria was built on Park Avenue, under the guidance of Lucius Boomer, the manager of the old Waldorf, a cast of furnishers and decorators with good reputations was assembled, to give it a grand yet domestic atmosphere. Boomer retired to Florida after the old Waldorf Astoria was demolished, but he had retained exclusive rights to use the name "Waldorf-Astoria", which he transferred to the new hotel. He died in an airplane crash in 1947, and Conrad Hilton bought the Waldorf Astoria in 1949.
In 2006, Hilton Hotels announced plans to build a second Waldorf-Astoria near Walt Disney World in Florida, and in 2007, plans were announced that another Waldorf-Astoria will be built in Beverly Hills, where Santa Monica Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard cross. A combination hotel and condominium Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and Residence Tower has been announced by third parties to be developed for Hilton in Chicago.
On August 24, 2007, Dimension Development Company of Natchitoches, Louisiana announced the purchase of the New Orleans Fairmont Hotel and plans to convert the hotel into a Waldorf-Astoria. It was not immediately known whether the name would be changed to Waldorf Astoria or whether it would revert to its former name, The Roosevelt, with the tagline, a Waldorf-Astoria Collection Hotel. In the 1940s, '50s and '60s, The Roosevelt was home to the World Famous "Blue Room" which brought—for the first time—the best Hollywood and Las Vegas talent to the Deep South on a regular basis.
Beverly Hills Waldorf Astoria
In November 2008, a referendum in Beverly Hills, California was voted on to determine whether developer Oasis West Realty LLC will be allowed to expand the nine-acre site of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, recently owned by the late Merv Griffin, at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards. Expansion plans include removing some buildings and adding an 8-story condo, a Waldorf=Astoria named 12-story hotel, and another 18-story condo tower. The Beverly Hills City Council had approved the $500 million project by a 3-2 vote. Local resident opponents led by a group called Citizens Right to Decide Committee gathered enough signatures to place the referendum on the November 4, 2008, ballot with the argument "It's Just Too Big." Los Angeles County election officials reported a week after the vote that local Measure H was losing by 68 votes, with provisional ballots yet to be counted. On December 2, 2008, yes on H passed by 129 votes. Yes: 7972. No: 7834.
Notable residents
- Hossein-Gholi Noori, an influential Qajar politician was sent by Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar to the United States of America during the time of President Grover Cleveland to serve as Iran's first ambassador to the U.S. He resided in the first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. During his stay at the hotel, he ordered a slaughter of a sheep from the balcony of his penthouse suite for the Eid al-Adha, a religious festival celebrated by Muslims. For his undiplomatic behaviour, he was summoned to the United States Department of State and then was recalled to Iran for poor representation of the Iranian people.
- Postmaster General James Farley occupied two adjoining suites in the Waldorf-Astoria Towers during his tenure as the Chairman of the Board of Coca-Cola's International division from 1940 until his death in 1976, arguably one of the landmark's longest housed tenants.
- During the 1950s and early 1960s, former U.S. president Herbert Hoover and retired U.S. General Douglas MacArthur lived in suites on different floors of the hotel. A plaque affixed to the wall on the 49th Street side commemorates this. There is also a recreation of one of the living room of Hoover's Waldorf-Astoria suite in the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.
- Around the time of World War I, inventor Nikola Tesla lived in the earlier Waldorf-Astoria.
- The Duke of Windsor and Duchess of Windsor maintained an apartment at the Waldorf Towers for many years.
- Gangsters Frank Costello, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Charles "Lucky" Luciano (room 39c) once lived in the Waldorf-Astoria.
- Bertie Charles Forbes, Scottish immigrant and founder of Forbes Magazine, became a regular at the Waldorf-Astoria with his savings from writing for Hearst in order to form the close relationships with prominent businessmen needed to start his own business publication.
- Cole Porter and Linda Lee Thomas had an apartment in the Waldorf Towers, where she died in 1954. Porter's 1934 song "You're the Top," contains the lyric, "You're the top, you're a Waldorf salad..."
- In the 1955, Marilyn Monroe stayed at the hotel, for several months, but due to costs of trying to finance her production company "Marilyn Monroe Productions", only being paid $1,500 a week for her role in The
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