Adelphi House in Bowling Green, New York

Adelphi Hotel, also known as Adelphi House, was an elegant establishment in Bowling Green area, located at 10 Broadway, at the corner of Beaver Street, in full view of The Battery and harbor. The six-story building was made of brick and stuccoed and possessed spacious and airy accommodations, including private parlors on the English plan, richly furnished*. It was established in 1827 and destroyed by fire in 1845.

In the book The Northern Traveller, and Northern Tour... by Theodore Dwight, published in 1828, we can read: "Going up it [Broadway] from the Battery, you pass the Bowling Green, a splendid new Hotel, called the Adelphi House,...".

In The Neill Collection of rare views of New York City,... by Anderson Galleries, Inc (1910) there is the reference, number 58: "Adelphi Hotel, No. 10 Broadway, with view of Bowling Green. Davis, del. Copper engraving by Rawdon, Wright and Co. Small view on a bill-head dated 1829." The same artists also made a view of Adelphi Hotel.

The Fashionable Tour... by G.M. Davison* is another good reference for this Hotel. In the third edition of his book, published in 1828, there is no reference for Adelphi Hotel, although the principal hotels and boarding houses in the City were listed. A very good reference was made in the fourth edition, published in 1830. Davison indicated, in the fourth edition, that the establishment was kept by John Ford, one of the proprietors of the U.S. Hotel at Saratoga Springs (in 1877, an Adelphi Hotel opened in Saratoga). In the sixth edition (1834), it was kept by Mrs. Barker. In the seventh edition (1837), the Adelphi Hotel was not listed among the hotels in the City. In the eight edition (1840), it appears in a secondary reference among the hotels in New York.

In 1845, Adelphi House was kept by Misses Constantine. The building was burnt down by the Great Fire of 1845, on July 19.

The Adelphi Hotel building, with its six floors and a small tower at the top of it, was the tallest commercial building in the City of New York. At the time, it was not practical to erect buildings with more than five floors because there was no passenger elevators. The race to build skyscrapers in New York started in 1868, with the construction of the Equitable Life Building.

After the fire the Delmonico's Hotel was erected on Broadway opposite to the old Adelphi Hotel. It was completed in 1846 and became Stevens House in 1856. Another Adelphi Hotel opened later in New York City, on the corner of 10th Avenue and 23rd Street. It was operational in the early 20th century. More: Historic Hotels in New York City ►

* The Fashionable Tour: A Guide to Travellers Visiting the Middle and Northern States, and the Provinces of Canada, by Gideon Miner Davison, 1830 (fourth edition).