All The Hotels In Manhattan With Addresses and Telephone Numbers From 50 Years Ago
From one of the best (and for some reason uncommon) guidebooks to New York City ever published, The New York Guidebook edited by John A. Kouwenhoven (Dell) 1964, comes this useful list of every hotel in Manhattan. We should clarify “every” with the word “approved” hotel and motel. In other words, the flop houses on The Bowery or other squalid hotels did not make the final cut.
The New York Guidebook was published with the 1964 New York World’s Fair visitor in mind as there is a special section devoted to it.
All together there are 183 hotels listed in the book. If you are wondering about the prices, they are not listed. But by checking another pamphlet from the time I discovered The Plaza Hotel was charging from $20 – $34 per night for a double room, while The Madison Square Hotel was charging $7 – $8 per night for a double.
You will note that all the telephone numbers begin with the letter prefix’s such as GR for Gramercy, BU for Butterfield, CI for Circle and RH for Rhinelander. This was because the telephone exchange corresponded with the neighborhood a person or business was located in. It is a much more picturesque way of assigning a phone number and made remembering the number much easier. PEnnsylvania 6-5000 anybody?
What is also interesting to notice is how many of these hotels are still in existence today and how many which had been in business for such a long time have now vanished.
This is presented as a research tool, but for many the list will bring up a wisp of nostalgia when you see the names Hotel Astor, The Drake, Biltmore and Savoy. I wish there was a list like this available online for every decade in New York City from the 1800’s and on.
So here is our online contribution to researchers or those who are just curious.
Hotels of Manhattan – 1964:
Abbey Hotel, 151 W. 51st St., N. Y. 19, N. Y., (CI 6-9400)
Aberdeen Hotel, 17 W. 32nd St., N. Y. 1, N. Y., (PE 6-1600)
Adams Hotel, 2 E. 86th St., N. Y. 28, N. Y., (RH 4-1800)
Alamac Hotel, 71st St. & Broadway, N. Y. 23, N. Y., (EN 2-5000)
Albert Hotel, 23 E. 10th St., N. Y. 3, N. Y., (OR 7-0100)
Alden Hotel, 225 Central Park W., N. Y. 24, N. Y., (TR 3-7300)
Algonquin Hotel, 59 W. 44th St., N. Y. 36, N. Y., (MU 7-4400) Continue reading
