Hotel Theresa
Hotel Theresa | |
New York City Landmark No. 1843
| |
Location | 2082–2096 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd. Manhattan, New York City |
---|---|
Coordinates | 40°48′31″N 73°56′58″W / 40.80861°N 73.94944°W |
Built | 1912–1913[2] |
Architect | George & Edward Blum |
NRHP reference No. | 05000618[1] |
NYCL No. | 1843 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | June 16, 2005 |
Designated NYCL | July 13, 1993 |
The Hotel Theresa is located at 2082–96
. In the mid-20th century, it was a vibrant center of African American life in the area and the city.The 13-story hotel was built in 1912–13 by German-born stockbroker
The building, now an office building known as Theresa Towers, was designated a
History
The 13-story[4] hotel – with its striking white terracotta façade with ornamentation made specifically for the project and not pre-fabricated stock items, as was standard practice[2] – opened in 1913 and was, until the construction of the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building across the street in 1973, the tallest building in Harlem. It was primarily an apartment hotel, but also accepted temporary guests as well.[2] In its early years, the hotel accepted only white guests, but it was bought in 1937 by Love B. Woods, an African American businessman who, in 1940, ended its racial segregation policy.[3][4]
The hotel had a two-story penthouse dining room which featured views of Long Island Sound to the east and the Palisades to the west,[4] as well as a bar and grill. In the 1940s and 1950s, the Theresa became a center of the social life of the black community of Harlem; it was then that it was known as "the Waldorf of Harlem". The hotel profited from the refusal of prestigious hotels elsewhere in the city to accept black guests. As a result, black businessmen, performers, and athletes were thrown under the same roof. The building was also the location of such institutions as A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington Movement, the March Community Bookstore, and the Organization of Afro-American Unity created by Malcolm X[2] after he left the Nation of Islam.
In 1960,
In October 1960, John F. Kennedy campaigned for the presidency at the hotel, along with Eleanor Roosevelt and other leading figures in the Democratic Party.
The hotel suffered from the continued deterioration of Harlem through the 1950s and 1960s and, ironically, from the end of segregation elsewhere in the city. As African Americans of means now had alternatives, they stopped coming to Harlem. The owners had not upgraded or modernized the hotel in decades and it was said to be "dowdy" at best.[2]
New owners began converting the building to office space beginning in 1966,
Notable guests, tenants and employees
In popular culture
See also
ReferencesNotes
Sources
External linksMedia related to Hotel Theresa at Wikimedia Commons |