Gilsey House Hotel | |
 a view from down Broadway (2010) | |
 | |
| Location | 1200 Broadway,Manhattan, New York City |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°44′46″N73°59′18″W / 40.74611°N 73.98833°W /40.74611; -73.98833 |
| Built | 1869-1871 |
| Architect | Stephen Decatur Hatch |
| Architectural style | Second Empire |
| NRHP reference No. | 78001872 |
| NYCL No. | 1039 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 14, 1978 |
| Designated NYCL | September 11, 1979 |
Gilsey House is an eight-story, 300-room former hotel[1] at 1200Broadway atWest 29th Street in theNoMad neighborhood ofManhattan, New York City. It is aNew York City landmark and on theNational Register of Historic Places.[2]
Gilsey House was designed byStephen Decatur Hatch for Peter Gilsey, aDanish immigrant merchant and city alderman[3] who leased[3] the plot – which included the grounds of theSt George's Cricket Club – from Caspar Samlar for $10,000 a year.[3][4][5][1] It was constructed from 1869 to 1871 at the cost of $350,000,[1] opening as the Gilsey House Hotel in 1872.[5][6] Thecast iron for the facade of theSecond Empire style building was fabricated byDaniel D. Badger,[4][1] a significant and influential advocate for cast-iron architecture at the time;[3] the extent to which Badger contributed to the design of the facade is unknown.[1]
The hotel was luxurious – the rooms featured rosewood and walnut finishing, marble fireplace mantles, bronze chandeliers[5] and tapestries[1] – and offered services to its guests such as telephones, the first hotel in New York to do so.[4] It was a favorite ofDiamond Jim Brady,Aimée Crocker andOscar Wilde,Samuel Clemens was a guest,[7][5][8][9] and it attracted the theatrical trade[4] at a time when the area – which became known as the "Tenderloin" – was becoming the primary entertainment and amusement district for New York's growing population,[10] with numerous theatres, gambling clubs and brothels.[3]
Gilsey House closed in 1911 after legal conflict beginning in 1904 between the operator of the hotel, Seaboard Hotel Company, and the Gilsey estate over the terms of the lease.[11] Parts of the facade, such as cast-iron columns, which went over the property line were removed, and the building deteriorated, with rust, water damage and sagging floors.[5] In 1925, plans were filed to rebuild the structure as an ordinary loft building of brick and stone, but were never carried out,[1] although the ground-level storefronts were modernized in 1946.[3] The building's future was decided when it was purchased in 1980 by Richard Berry and F. Anthony Zunino and converted into co-operative apartments[5] after a cosmetic cleanup of the exterior, which won a commendation from the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture.[1] The facade was finally almost fully restored in 1992 byBuilding Conservation Associates.[10]
The building, with its "extraordinary" three-storymansard roof [10] and its "vigor that only the waning years of the 19th century could muster"[6] was added to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1978. It was designated aNew York City landmark in 1979.[10]
Media related toGilsey House at Wikimedia Commons