Waldorf Astoria

by Arcadia Publishing

Overview

The name Waldorf Astoria conjures images of Gilded Age opulence for the elite and the personalities that illuminated the Gilded Age in New York. Visit the old location on Fifth and 33rd and the current day incarnation on Park Avenue.

Famed throughout the world, New York's Waldorf Astoria is quite simply the grandest of all grand hotels. Host to emperors, rajahs, potentates, and plutocrats—not to mention every US president since Grover Cleveland—its name has become synonymous with the epitome of glamour, luxury, and sophistication. The name Waldorf Astoria applied to two different but equally magnificent hotels. The first was the connecting Hotel Waldorf and Astoria Hotel operating at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West Thirty-third Street. It was a Gilded Age pleasure dome created by the Astor family for New York's social elite. The second and present Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue is the ultimate expression of Gotham's Jazz Age extravagance. Vintage photographs herein record the architecture, decoration, and history of these two extraordinary establishments as well as the outsized personalities who created and dwelt within them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467121286
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	04/14/2014
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,118,980
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Descended from four generations of American hotel keepers and dwellers, William Alan Morrison is the author of photographic histories of New York's Broadway theaters, the lavish estates of the Philadelphia Main Line, and architects Carrère & Hastings. Though he, of course, was not present, his mother and father held their wedding reception in the Basildon Room of the present Waldorf Astoria.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 A Fit Place for a Gentleman 9

2 Meet Me at the Hyphen 25

3 Manhattan's Main Street 51

4 The Unofficial Palace of New York 67

5 Host to the World 99

Bibliography 127