From Preservation Online, the online magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

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New Yorker Hotel Sign Illuminated Again


Story by Michele Schwartz / Jan. 5, 2006

After 35 years in the dark, the name of one of New York City's most notable hotels is again in lights.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the New Yorker Hotel, its management received the city's permission to replace the art deco building's three-story-high sign and re-light it on Dec. 8, the first time since 1969.

"We're thrilled," says hotel spokesman Thomas McCaffrey. "What a perfect way to highlight the history of the building." During the $250,000 project, workers removed and replaced the old 18-feet letters with lighter-weight LCD lights.

The original sign will be destroyed; a replica will illuminate the skyline. "It's old, and there's nothing we can do with it," McCaffrey says.

The 42-story building opened in 1930 as the largest hotel in the United States, with 2,500 operating rooms and a staff of 2,000, according to McCaffrey. A 50-chair barbershop, 10 private dining salons, and an underground tunnel linking the hotel to the old Penn Station were some of the luxuries guest enjoyed for around $2 a night.

The hotel hit its heyday during the Big Band era-Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, and the Dorsey Brothers performed there. The hotel's reputation attracted a variety of celebrities and political figures over the years: Babe Ruth, John F. Kennedy, and Joe DiMaggio were guests, as well as Fidel Castro, who stayed at the New Yorker while on U.N. business. By the 1960s, however, the hotel's popularity had waned, and its doors closed in 1972.

In 1994, the New York Hotel Management Company reopened the hotel, and one of its goals has been to restore the historical elements of one of the city's largest art deco buildings, according to McCaffrey. He believes the re-illuminated sign will herald a fresh era for the New Yorker Hotel. "It's finding a new life," McCaffrey says.

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