Posted Apr 18, 2011, 8:28 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 263
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Yes. Thanks for this. The [unrelated] research I have been doing is on Carolina Astor and so I was studying her own townhome at that same address, but the Waldorf-Astoria construction was related to this, see here:
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON017.htm
Quote:
In 1890, John Jacob Astor III bequeathed his home to his son, William Waldorf Astor, who decided not to live in it. He chose instead to live on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street. It was not William’s intent to live next door to his “Aunt Lina”, with whom he’d been engaged in a family feud for several years. As far as William was concerned, he was the male head of the Astor family, and therefore, it was his wife, Mary Dahlgren Paul (called Mamie) who was to be referred to as “THE Mrs. Astor”! It infuriated him that, due to her high social standing, the press and Society had fallen into the habit of referring to his aunt as “Mrs. Astor”. Frankly, Caroline herself regarded the entire matter with simple indifference, but as William had since childhood considered himself to be superior, and had always been ill-tempered and spoiled, his intent was to seek revenge against his aunt. Thus, he decided that rather than live in the house next door to her, he would build a large, noisy hotel on the corner of Fifth and 33rd Street that would drive his aunt crazy, and would literally overshadow her! William Waldorf insisted that the hotel be named “The Waldorf” so as to always remind the public of his importance. Yet, by the time of the hotel’s completion in 1893, Waldorf had been living in England for two years. He saw his hotel only once in his lifetime.
The Waldorf opened its doors on March 4, 1893 and was a smashing success. The grand-opening event was a fund-raising party for the benefit of St. Mary’s Free Hospital for child-ren. The event was sponsored by some of the most prominent and well-known names of the upper social circles. The patroness (benefactor) was Mrs. Richard Irwin, who was one of the original “Four Hundred”, and was active in unlimited charities. Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt (also a Fifth Avenue resident and the topic of the next entry on this webpage) paid for the opening concert, performed by the New York Symphony led by Walter Dam-rosch.
Not only did The Waldorf prove to be very profitable for the Astor estate, it also accomplished William’s underlying purpose of driving his Aunt Lina out of her home at 350 Fifth Avenue. In actuality, however, Mrs. Astor had begun contemplating her move from 350 Fifth Avenue at the very onset of plans for the Waldorf Hotel in 1890. At that time, rumors began floating that the residence of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor might be demolished and the site used for a sister hotel. When William Waldorf moved to England in 1891 (two years prior to the grand opening of his hotel), Caroline’s son, John Jacob Astor IV, became the titular head of the Astor family, and plans for the building of a second hotel became official. The hotel was originally to be called “The Schermerhorn”, in tribute to his renowned mother, but in the end, the hotel was named in honor of Astoria, the fur-trapping colony in Oregon where the Astor wealth originated.
The Astoria had a frontage on Fifth Avenue, but its length was along 34th Street. At sixteen stories, the Astoria stood five stories taller than the Waldorf, but the two hotels were connected and in effect, became one building.
The combined hotel (for which provisions were made that the hotels could be divided at any time; most likely a carry-over from the uneasy relations between the two branches of the family) became known as the Waldorf-Astoria, and was the largest hotel in the world at its opening on November 1, 1897.
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