At the Plaza Read online

  1890

  • First Plaza Hotel opens (October 1).

  1892

  • New Netherland Hotel and Savoy Hotel open opposite The Plaza on either side of Fifty-ninth Street.

  1903

  • Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s statue of William Tecumseh Sherman unveiled in open plaza in front of hotel (May 30).

  1905

  • First Plaza Hotel demolished in order to build an even larger hotel (June).

  1907

  • New Plaza Hotel, constructed in twenty-seven months at a cost of $12.5 million, opens its doors (October 1).

  • Taxi fleet makes its first appearance on New York streets, congregating at The Plaza and offering free rides to guests on opening day (October 1).

  • First function held in Ballroom, a dinner hosted by the Pilgrims of America in honor of the Lord Bishop of London (October 15).

  • Mrs. Patrick Campbell lights a cigarette in Palm Court, causing a scandal (November 15).

  • Tenor Enrico Caruso checks in; the humming of the electric Magneta clock in his suite disturbs him, and he silences it with a knife, thereby stopping all the clocks in the hotel (December 8).

  1908

  • Mrs. Van Vechten’s Divorce Dance, an amateur theatrical starring Mrs. George Jay Gould, staged in Ballroom (January 24).

  • Russian Princess Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy, noted portraitist and animal rights activist, checks in; later acquires lion cub that also takes up residence in hotel.

  1909

  • Chairs and tables removed from Fifty-eighth Street dining room (later the Rose Room) to convert it into a reading lounge.

  • Plaza illuminated as part of citywide Hudson-Fulton Celebration; hotel is official host to foreign delegation from the Netherlands (September 25–October 11).

  1910

  • Lord Kitchener, British officer and statesman, stays at The Plaza during much-publicized visit to New York.

  • Champagne Porch, an outdoor café along Fifth Avenue side of hotel, opens.

  • Summer Garden, a seasonal restaurant, opens in the area later known as the Rose Room.

  1912

  • Mosaic tile floor in Rose Room replaced with hardwood floor, and space is used for tea dances and for private functions (until 1925).

  1916

  • Pulitzer Fountain dedicated (May).

  1920

  • Volstead Act closes Men’s Bar (later becomes Oak Room).

  • Men’s Cafe (later Edwardian Room) is opened to women and renamed the Plaza Restaurant.

  • Newlyweds Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald patronize the hotel’s restaurants and Fitzgerald takes a much-publicized swim in the Pulitzer Fountain.

  1921

  • Construction of a three-hundred-room annex on the Fifth-eighth Street side of the hotel.

  • Champagne Porch closes (June).

  • New Fifth Avenue entrance constructed, and former dining room becomes Fifth Avenue lobby.

  • Flags hung from Fifth Avenue side of hotel for the first time.

  • New Ballroom opens (October 3).

  1923

  • Public square separating hotel from Fifth Avenue officially designated Grand Army Plaza by Board of Aldermen (February 10).

  • Hotel builder Harry Black constructs duplex on eighteenth floor as his private apartment; later known as the Penthouse (October 1).

  1925

  • F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby published, with scenes set in hotel.

  • Jessie Woolworth Donahue, heiress to the Woolworth fortune, has $683,000 worth of jewels stolen from her Plaza suite; gems are later recovered, with no questions asked; thief’s identity is never known.

  • Rose Room leased to Studebaker Corporation as showroom (December).

  1927

  • Plaza neighbor the Sherry-Netherland Hotel opens, replacing former New Netherland Hotel (September 29).

  1928

  • Plaza neighbor the Savoy-Plaza Hotel opens, replacing former Savoy Hotel.

  • Plaza neighbor Bergdorf Goodman opens, replacing Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion.

  1930

  • Studebaker Corporation gives up showroom, and Rose Room reverts to space for private functions.

  1930s

  • Breaking up of large suites for permanent guests into rooms for visitors begins.

  1933

  • Prohibition is repealed (December).

  1934

  • Persian Room, an Art Moderne nightclub designed by Joseph Urban, opens in former Rose Room space (April 1).

  • Oak Room, formerly the Men’s Bar, opens as restaurant.

  1938

  • Pulitzer Fountain rebuilt due to deterioration.

  1941–1945

  • Hotel enforces a three-day maximum stay during the war years (a citywide law due to room shortages), and it eventually places cots in offices to accommodate the overflow; countless bond drives launched in its public rooms.

  1941

  • Singer Hildegarde debuts in Persian Room; she will go on to make more appearances there than any other performer (September 23).

  1943

  • Conrad Hilton and Atlas Corporation acquire hotel for $7,400,000 (October).

  1944

  • Domed glass ceiling in Palm Court removed (November).

  • E. F. Hutton offices, adjacent to Oak Room, moved to mezzanine in Fifth Avenue lobby; construction of Oak Bar begins.

  1945

  • Oak Bar opens (January 13).

  • Murals painted by Everett Shinn installed in Oak Bar.

  • The Penthouse, Harry Black’s former duplex, leased to Gourmet magazine as offices and test kitchen.

  • Center entrance of Fifty-ninth Street lobby sealed off and converted into flower shop.

  1946

  • Plaque honoring George M. Cohan installed in Oak Room by the Lambs, a theatrical club (April 24).

  • Greta Garbo photographed by Cecil Beaton in Suite 249–251 (April).

  1947

  • Hotel celebrates fortieth anniversary with party organized by Serge Obolensky (October 1).

  • Rendez-vous supper club opens in basement space formerly the Grill Room. (October 30).

  • Serge Obolensky introduces celebrity suites, specially designed apartments honoring couturier Christian Dior (223–225), photographer Cecil Beaton (249–251), novelist Somerset Maugham (649–651), and decorator Lady Mendl (317–325 and 501–503).

  1950

  • Industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss remodels Persian Room.

  1951

  • Singer Kay Thompson (future author of Eloise) and the Williams Brothers make first appearance in Persian Room (September 20).

  1953

  • Hotel sold to Park Fifty-ninth Street Corporation, headed by Boston industrialist A. M. Sonnabend, for $15 million (October 14).

  • Architect Frank Lloyd Wright moves into Suite 223–225, where he will live for the next six years as he supervises construction of Guggenheim Museum

  • Comedian Milton Berle celebrates his marriage to Ruth Cosgrove with reception at hotel (December 9).

  1954

  • State Suite opened to public as space for private functions.

  • Socialite Patricia Kennedy weds film star Peter Lawford and has reception in Ballroom (April 24).

  1955

  • Eloise, written by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight, is published.

  • Plaza Restaurant renamed and reopened as Edwardian Room.

  1956

  • Marilyn Monroe causes uproar at Terrace Room press conference when her shoulder strap breaks (February 9).

  • Television sets installed in guest rooms for the first time.

  • Tricycle Garage for children opens on 58th Street side of hotel (May).

  • Playhouse 90 special on Eloise airs on CBS (November 22).

  1957

  • Hotel celebrates fiftieth anniversary with dinner benefiting Recreation Service f
or Children of Bellevue (October 1).

  • Hilary Knight’s portrait of Eloise hung in lobby opposite Palm Court.

  1958

  • Trader Vic’s opens in Savoy-Plaza Hotel (April 13).

  • Alfred Hitchcock begins shooting North by Northwest in Oak Bar, marking hotel’s movie debut (August).

  • Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday perform at Persian Room private party hosted by Columbia Records; “Jazz at The Plaza,” an original composition, is debuted by Davis (September 9).

  • Hotel sold to lawyer and realty investor Lawrence A. Wein for $21 million; to be operated by Hotel Corporation of America (November 20).

  1960

  • Portrait of Eloise vanishes after college dance in Ballroom (November).

  1961

  • Rendez-vous supper club closes.

  1962

  • PLaza 9 cabaret opens in basement space formerly home of Rendez-vous.

  1963

  • New York Community Trust recognizes Plaza as landmark and affixes plaque to northeast corner of building.

  • Fifty-eighth Street elevators converted from manned hydraulic cars to self-service electric.

  • Singers Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence are married in the State Suite (August 12).

  • Palm Court After 8, a late-night dessert room, opens; staff includes the hotel’s first waitresses (November 13).

  1964

  • Beatles arrive for a six-day visit (February 7).

  • Beatles hold lively press conference in Baroque Room (February 10).

  • New portrait of Eloise unveiled to coincide with New York World’s Fair festivities (April 17).

  1965

  • Baroque Room enlarged, doubling its capacity.

  • Demolition begins on Plaza neighbor, the Savoy-Plaza Hotel, which is replaced by General Motors Building.

  • Trader Vic’s transplanted from the Savoy-Plaza to The Plaza (August 18).

  1966

  • Author Truman Capote hosts legendary Black and White Ball in Ballroom (November 28).

  1967

  • Hassan II, King of Morocco, pays much-publicized six-day visit (February 11–17).

  • Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Joseph Stalin, holds Terrace Room press conference to explain her defection from Russia (April 26).

  • Movie version of Neil Simon’s play Barefoot in the Park released, with scenes shot on premises.

  • The Plaza: Its Life and Times, by Eve Brown, published by Meredith Press.

  1968

  • Neil Simon’s play Plaza Suite premieres at Broadway’s Plymouth Theater (February 14).

  • PLaza 9 … And All That Jazz opens, a reworking of the former cabaret into a jazz venue; opening act is Lionel Hampton (September 24).

  • Julie Nixon, daughter of President-elect Richard Nixon, marries David Eisenhower and has reception in Ballroom (December 22).

  1969

  • Members of National Organization for Women, including its president, Betty Friedan, refused luncheon service in Oak Room, resulting in picket lines (February 12).

  • Room 934 redesigned and opened as the Eloise Room (December 11).

  • Hotel designated a New York City landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (December).

  • Oyster Bar opens (December 17).

  1970

  • Plaza 9 Music Hall opens in former Plaza 9 … And All That Jazz space; first show is Dames at Sea (September 22).

  • Filming of Plaza Suite begins with location shooting in Fifty-ninth Street lobby (September 23).

  1971

  • Edwardian Room transformed into Green Tulip restaurant.

  • Hotel acquired by Sonesta International.

  • Ice Cream Corner opens in Fifty-eighth Street lobby (July).

  1972

  • Penthouse opened to public as space for nonresident guests for the first time.

  • The Plaza Cookbook, by Eve Brown, published by Prentice-Hall.

  1973

  • Movie The Way We Were released, with scenes shot at Fifth Avenue entrance.

  • Eloise Room closed.

  • Jazz at The Plaza, a recording of 1958 Persian Room concert featuring Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday, released by Columbia Records.

  • Twenty-four hour room service introduced (December 14).

  • Persian Room redecorated.

  1974

  • Ice Cream Corner closes (March 31).

  • Green Tulip restaurant closes (May 18).

  • Plaza Restaurant opens in Green Tulip space (June 18); name later reverts to Edwardian Room.

  • Grand Army Plaza designated New York City landmark.

  • Film version of The Great Gatsby released, with scenes shot on premises.

  • Western International Hotels acquires The Plaza for $25 million (November).

  1975

  • Persian Room closes, after a forty-one-year run.

  1976

  • Fifty-ninth Street elevators converted from manned hydraulic cars to self-service electric.

  1977

  • Cinema 3 movie theater opens in basement space formerly PLaza 9 Music Hall (January 24).

  1978

  • Plaza added to National Register of Historic Places by U.S. Department of the Interior (November 28).

  1980

  • Plaza added to New York State Register of Historic Places (June 23).

  1981

  • Western International Hotels renamed Westin.

  • Movie Arthur released, with scene shot in Oak Room.

  1982

  • Hotel celebrates seventy-fifth anniversary with dinner benefiting New York Landmarks Conservancy (September 30).

  1985

  • The Plaza Accord—an international economic agreement—signed in Baroque Room by finance ministers of the United States, Japan, West Germany, Great Britain, and France (September 22).

  • Nonsmoking rooms introduced.

  1986

  • The Plaza named National Historic Landmark (June 24).

  • Movie Crocodile Dundee released, with scenes shot on premises.

  1987

  • Entire Westin chain (including The Plaza) sold to partnership of Robert M. Bass and the Aoki Corporation (October).

  1988

  • Tycoon Donald Trump acquires hotel for $390 million (July).

  • Movie Big Business released, with scenes shot on premises.

  1989

  • Specialty suites designed under supervision of Ivana Trump: the Astor Suite (317–323), the Bridal Suite (1011–1013), the Vanderbilt (533–543), the Frank Lloyd Wright (221–223), the Louis XVI (1019–1023), and the Presidential (1801).