The Drake Hotel, New York

The Drake Hotel, New York

The Drake Hotel was a hotel which was located at Park Avenue and 56th Street, New York.

The Drake hotel was built in 1926 by the real estate organization of Bing and Bing. It was a 21 floor complex with 495 rooms. "It boasted innovations such as automatic refrigeration as well as spacious, luxurious rooms and suites." [http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2006_4th/Dec06_Turkel21.html Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 21] hotel-online.com]

Bing and Bing owned and operated the hotel for more than 35 years. "In the early 1960s, entrepreneur William Zeckendorf acquired the hotel, added 180 guest rooms and opened New York’s first discotheque, known as Shepheard’s." Fauchon chocolates was located on the ground floor.

In 1965, the Tisch brothers acquired the Drake. The hotel was acquired in the early 1980s by the Swissotel company of Zurich, which undertook a $52 million room-by-room renovation of the building. Renovations were completed in 1991.

Silent film star Lillian Gish lived at the hotel from 1946-1949. Other notable guests included Frank Sinatra, Muhammed Ali, Judy Garland, and Glenn Gould; restauranteur Toots Shor lived there in his final years. Songwriter Jerome Kern collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the Drake on November 5, 1945.

In the 1960s and 1970s the Drake Hotel was the preferred accommodation in New York for a number of touring rock bands, such as Led Zeppelin and The Who. During their stay there in 1973, Led Zeppelin had $180,000 stolen from a safe deposit box at the hotel. The money was never recovered and the identity of the thief or thieves has never been discovered. The band later sued the Drake Hotel for the theft.

In 2006 the hotel was sold for $440 million to developer Harry Macklowe. It was as demolished in 2007. The site remains undeveloped (September 2008).

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Drake Hotel (New York City) — The Drake Hotel was a hotel located at Park Avenue and 56th Street, New York, NY. The hotel was built in 1926 by the real estate organization of Bing and Bing. It was a 21 floor complex with 495 rooms. It boasted innovations such as automatic… …   Wikipedia

  • Drake Hotel — may refer to: in Canada Drake Hotel (Toronto) in the United States (by state) Drake Hotel (Chicago), Illinois, listed on the NRHP Drake Hotel (Gallup, New Mexico), listed on the NRHP in New Mexico Drake Hotel (New York City) Drake Hotel… …   Wikipedia

  • Port Charles, New York (fictional city) — Port Charles, New York is the fictional setting of the ABC Daytime soap operas General Hospital and its now cancelled spin off Port Charles . Port Charles is also the setting for SOAPnet s primetime GH spin off, . Port Charles can also be… …   Wikipedia

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Sullivan County, New York — Location of Sullivan County in New York …   Wikipedia

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Westchester County, New York — Location of Westchester County in New York …   Wikipedia

  • The Song Remains the Same (film) — Infobox Film name = The Song Remains the Same caption = director = Peter Clifton Joe Massot producer = Peter Grant writer = starring = John Bonham John Paul Jones Jimmy Page Robert Plant music = Led Zeppelin cinematography = Ernest Day editing =… …   Wikipedia

  • The History of Rock & Roll — was a radio documentary on rock and roll music, originally syndicated in 1969. One of the most lengthiest documentaries of any medium (48 hours in the 1969 version, 52 hours for the 1978 and 1981 versions) Fact|date=January 2008, The History of… …   Wikipedia

  • New Year Honours 1997 — The New Year Honours 1997 for the United Kingdom and Hong Kong were announced on 31 December, 1996, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 1997.The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new… …   Wikipedia

  • The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast — Genre Variety/Comedy Written by David Axelroad, Bill Daley Directed by Greg Garrison Presented by Dean Martin …   Wikipedia

  • The Prisoner — For other uses, see Prisoner (disambiguation). The Prisoner The Prisoner intertitle Format Spy fiction, Science fiction, Allegory Created by …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”