Architecture Vanderbilt Hotel, Park Avenue

Two photos, dated February 27, 1931, featuring the old Vanderbilt Hotel, which occupied the west blockfront of Park Avenue from 33rd St. to 34th Street.

Above, photo showing the top of the building. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt and his wife Margaret occupied a two-story apartment, until 1915, located atop their hotel.

On the right, photo of Park Avenue, west side, south from 34th Street, showing Vanderbilt Hotel and other buildings around. The 28-story office building 2 Park Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets, was completed in 1928 on the site of the old Park Avenue Hotel. We can also see the partially dismantled Community Church in the lower right, that was replaced by the apartment-hotel 10 Park Avenue, built in 1931.

When opened its doors in 1912, Hotel Vanderbilt was a showcase for terra cotta. It was closed in 1965. Then, part of the building was converted into residential apartments. The other part was offices and stores. It occupies the entire end of the block on Park Avenue, from Thirty-third to Thirty-fourth Street, but the frontage on the streets is but 80 feet.

Photographs by Percy Loomis Sperr. Source: Photographic views of New York City, 1870's-1970's, from the collections of the New York Public Library.