Astor House

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The Astor House was a fine hotel in New York City.

[edit] History

The Astor House was originally built by John Jacob Astor and opened in 1836 as the Park Hotel. It was located on Broadway between Vesey and Barclay Streets, across from New York City Hall and diagonally across from the New York Herald. The building was designed by Isaiah Rogers in a Greek Revival style, 309 rooms in its 6 stories with gaslights and bathing/toilet facilities on each floor.

Mathew Brady lived there in the 1840s and William James was born there in 1842. In 1843, the Astor House hosted the recently-married Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his wife. The couple, who renewed their friendship with fellow patron Fanny Kemble, also dined there with Nathaniel Parker Willis and his wife during their stay.^[1] The norwegian violinist Ole Bull was a returning patron at the hotel on his american tours in the 1840-, 50- and 60-ties. Abraham Lincoln stayed there in February 1860. It was used as a safe haven during the Great Blizzard of 1888 and in 1916, Charles Evans Hughes stayed there while his presidential bid stood in the balance. American Civil War Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes stayed at Astor House twice. First, in March of 1861, on the eve of the war when he was searching for ships to buy for the fledgling Confederate Navy (he found none). Nearly five years later, on December 27, 1865, he again spent the night. This time as a prisoner of the North, while being escorted to The Washington Navy Yard where Federal authorities would decide whether to put him on trial.

By the early 1870s it was considered old-fashioned and unappealing and principally used by businessmen. It was demolished in 1926.

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