Overview

Manhattan has long been renowned for the diversity of its offering of hotels --from some of the best in the world to some of the worst. Around 1880, the entire nature of the hotel experience began to change. Formerly, hotels had been just a place to stop between here and there for a hot meal and a warm bed. Suddenly, the hotel itself became the destination. New affluence, new technologies, and new fashion all came together in the decades between 1880 and 1920 to influence the demands of hotel guests, eventually changing the hotel themselves. This book gives a glimpse into the hotels of the super rich, the not-so-rich, the middle class, the Bohemians, and the workers. In a city as dynamic as New York, it should come as no surprise that so many hotels have a juicy tidbit or two of historical gossip attached to them. Manhattan Hotels: 1880 -1920 may well be the most extensive work in print on the subject of the city 's hotels in this period. Far from being a book for specialists, however, it is designed to bring Manhattan and its hotels of this era to life for all those who have been captivated by the electric excitement of the place."