The Carlyle Hotel is a luxury apartment hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1930, the Art Deco hotel was designed by Sylvan Bien and Harry M. Prince, with interiors by Dorothy Draper. It was named after the Scottish author Thomas Carlyle. The Carlyle has approximately 190 hotel rooms and suites, in addition to 60 cooperative residences.
The Carlyle was built by Moses Ginsberg, the maternal grandfather of the novelist Rona Jaffe, starting in 1928. Within two years of the hotel's opening, Ginsberg had lost the hotel to foreclosure, and the Lyleson Corporation took over operation. Robert W. Dowling took over the hotel in 1944 and added entertainment venues, including Bemelmans Bar in 1947 and the Cafe Carlyle in 1955. The partnership of Jerome L. Greene, Norman L. Peck, and Peter Jay Sharp bought the Carlyle in 1967 and converted it into a housing cooperative two years later. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts has owned the hotel since 2001. It is branded as "The Carlyle, a Rosewood Hotel".
The Carlyle is tall and consists of a 40-story tower to the south and a 14-story apartment building to the north. Draper designed the original main lobby, which connects with an elevator lobby. The lower stories also include a spa and stores, as well as dining areas like the Cafe Carlyle, Bemelmans Bar, and a restaurant named Dowling's. The hotel rooms and suites on the Carlyle Hotel's upper stories are designed in a variety of styles, with multiple layouts. Some of the apartments on the upper stories are leased to residents on a long-term basis, while others are owned by residents. The hotel's Cafe Carlyle has featured jazz performers including George Feyer and Bobby Short, while the Bemelmans Bar's performers have included Barbara Carroll. Over the years, the Carlyle Hotel has been frequented by celebrities, politicians, and royalty. The Carlyle has received much commentary on its culture, architecture, and hotel rooms, and it has frequently ranked among New York City's best hotels.
Site The Carlyle Hotel is on the east side of Madison Avenue, between 76th and 77th streets, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.; The building covers two rectangular land lots. The southern land lot measures , with an area of , while the northern land lot covers , with dimensions of about . The site originally had a frontage of on 76th Street, on Madison Avenue, and on 77th Street. The intersection of 76th Street and Madison Avenue is co-named Bobby Short Way in honor of the pianist who frequently performed at the hotel. Across Madison Avenue to the west are the Clarence Whitman Mansion and 980 Madison Avenue, while to the northwest is the Mark Hotel.
Prior to the construction of the hotel, the site had included two apartment buildings: the ten-story Carrollton and another eight-story apartment building. The Carrollton had been built in 1888 and was one of the city's first apartment buildings with a steel superstructure. In the early 20th century, the real estate developer John Larkin owned the site. When construction of the Carlyle began in mid-1929, the site had included seven houses;; three additional houses on 77th Street were acquired later that year.;
History During the early 19th century, apartment developments in the city were generally associated with the working class. By the late 19th century, apartment hotels were becoming desirable among the middle and upper classes. Apartment hotels in New York City became more popular after World War I, particularly among wealthy people. As the economy boomed and skyscrapers rose, owning a townhouse in New York City began to fall out of fashion.
Development The Carlyle was built by Moses Ginsberg, a banker and real-estate developer who was the maternal grandfather of the novelist Rona Jaffe. In April 1928, Ginsberg bought a site on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 76th Street from the Mayer family, with plans to erect a skyscraper there.; Ginsberg acquired further land in February 1929, giving him control of the entire eastern side of Madison Avenue between 76th and 77th streets.; The same month, the architect Sylvan Bien filed plans for a 36-story apartment hotel on the site, to be built by the Calvin Morris Corporation.; By then, multiple apartment hotels were being built along Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side. Ginsberg acquired two additional houses at 56 and 58 East 77th Street that March, with plans to construct a service entrance for the hotel on these sites.;
In July 1929, Ginsberg began clearing the site. At the time, the southern half of the site on 76th Street was to contain the 36-story hotel, while the northern half on 77th Street was to include a 14-story apartment building. Ginsberg rounded out his holdings on 77th Street that November, buying the houses at 54, 60, and 62 East 77th Street. At that time, Sylvan Bien and Joseph Prince announced that a 14-story apartment house with stores would be constructed at the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 77th Street, on a site measuring . A new law limited the heights of apartment buildings in the area, although Ginsberg's structure was exempt, ensuring it would be taller than all of the other apartment houses in the neighborhood.
Work on the building's steel frame began in January 1930. At the time, several other luxury apartment hotels were simultaneously being developed on the Upper East Side including 740 Park Avenue, 960 Fifth Avenue, and The Pierre hotel. Moses's son Calmon Ginsberg, who supervised the hotel's construction, visited 740 Park Avenue and 960 Fifth Avenue to determine what changes needed to be made to the Carlyle. After observing these two buildings, Calmon ultimately only modified the Carlyle's bathroom pipes.
Opening and Great Depression
The hotel opened on November 3, 1930, with apartments that originally cost up to $1 million a year.. Originally, occupants could rent apartments on a monthly or annual basis, or they could pay for rooms by the night. At the suggestion of Ginsberg's daughter Diana, the hotel was named after the Scottish author Thomas Carlyle. Initially, the hotel was far removed from both the Midtown Manhattan shopping district and the Theater District, and the surrounding neighborhood was rundown. Contrary to other major buildings that had spurred waves of development in their respective areas, the opening of the Carlyle did not spur any large-scale development on Madison Avenue. It was not until later that structures such as the Parke-Bernet galleries at 980 Madison Avenue, as well as the Whitney Museum at 945 Madison Avenue, were developed.
The Carlyle Hotel was one of several large structures in New York City to be completed just after the onset of the Great Depression, along with London Terrace, The Majestic, Hampshire House, and 330 West 42nd Street. The Calvin Morris Corporation filed $444,870 worth of mechanics' liens against Ginsberg in January 1931, shortly after the Carlyle had opened. A floral shop opened on the hotel's ground floor that year. The Carlyle also had a barbershop operated by Joe Miceli on the ground floor, which opened shortly after the hotel's completion and operated nearly continuously for half a century. The hotel quickly gained tenants in spite of the Depression. The Carlyle was placed for sale at a foreclosure auction in December 1931, and it was again listed for sale in February 1932.; Subsequently, the Carlyle went into receivership.
The hotel was sold in May 1932 to Samuel A. Telsey, who had bid $2.655 million on the structure. The Lyleson Corporation, a subsidiary of the Consolidated-Dearborn Corporation, took control the same year. The new owners kept the original management, which was able to dramatically improve the property's financial situation through maintaining high occupancy and rates favorable to the hotel's costs. The hotel's reputation at the time was "staid rather than ritzy", and its clientele were largely upper-class and low-profile, including business executives and elderly women. For the most part, the hotel did not attract celebrity residents. The storefront, basement, and mezzanine of the apartment-house section on 77th Street was leased to a drugstore in 1935. During the late 1930s, the Carlyle's restaurant and bar area were expanded, and air-conditioning was installed on the first floor. Muzak music was played at the bar, which served drinks and light snacks.
Dowling and Rockefeller ownership The post–World War II development boom allowed the hotel to take on new high-society prominence. The City Investing Company, led by the businessman Robert Whittle Dowling, purchased the Carlyle in June 1944;; the purchase was financed by a $1.3 million loan.; Dowling also bought three nearby buildings to protect the views from the Carlyle. After obtaining the Carlyle, Dowling transformed from a "respectable" address to a "downright fashionable" one frequented by elegant Europeans, operating it similarly to a social club in that prospective guests were required to provide social references. at one point, the hotel's staff checked whether potential guests were on the Social Register before allowing them to book rooms there. To preserve the hotel's exposure to sunlight, Dowling built a low-rise building immediately to the west at 980 Madison Avenue. Robert Huyot was appointed as the hotel's president and general manager later the same year. When a federal rent regulation restriction expired in 1947, Huyot decided to raise rents for the hotel's guests by as much as 15%.; The same year, the hotel's bar became the Bemelmans Bar.
In the years after the war, various luxury stores and restaurants had opened around the Carlyle, and there were also several art galleries nearby.; A real-estate brokerage also opened on the hotel's ground floor in 1952. The Rockefeller family's Hills Realty Company bought the Carlyle Hotel and Carlyle Apartments in May 1953, leasing the hotel's operation back to Dowling for 21 years. At the time, the hotel and apartment building had a combined 800 rooms, and workers were adding stainless-steel storefronts at ground level. The hotel's operators also spent $125,000 to convert part of the space into a supper club named the Café Carlyle, with murals by Marcel Vertès. The Café Carlyle opened in November 1955. An art gallery, the World House Galleries, opened within the Carlyle Hotel in early 1957.; The gallery space, designed by Frederick Kiesler, occupied two stories of the hotel and included various niches, cantilevered stairs, and curving walls.
By the early 1960s, the Carlyle had become a luxury hotel, and its staff provided personalized service for visitors. Janusz Ilinski was appointed as the hotel's chairman and CEO in 1961 but died three months after his appointment.; The City Investing Company acquired a one-third ownership stake in the hotel building in 1965 from the Hills Realty Company. In exchange, City Investing transferred ownership of 980 Madison Avenue, as well as an industrial park in Edison, New Jersey, to the Rockefeller family.; In addition, a flower shop opened on the hotel's ground floor the same year and the hotel's managers replaced the existing windows with movable windows. The Café Carlyle also underwent a minor refurbishment; the club was repainted, and its furniture was re-upholstered. By the late 1960s, musicians frequented the hotel.
Greene, Peck, and Sharp ownership
1960s and 1970s