Historic Hotels of the Village

A recent report by Crain’s New York that a number of hotels were opening in and around the Union Square area had us thinking here at Off the Grid about some historic Village hotels.

The Hotel Brevoort was built in 1845 by the Brevoort family, owners of a large tract of land stretching from 5^th Avenue to the Bowery and extending north of 14^th Street. The hotel was demolished in 1954 and a new residential building, aptly named the Brevoort, still stands today. The hotel, and its later café, were frequented by heads of state as well as Village artists and writers.

The Hotel Lafayette was located in three townhouses on 9^th Street and University Place, from the 1880s to 1953, until it was demolished and turned into a residential apartment building. The café was frequented by artists and writers, and was memorialized by artist John Sloan and photographer Berenice Abbott.

Unlike the Brevoort or Lafayette, the Hotel Albert was originally built as apartments, changed to a hotel in 1887, and converted into apartments in the 1970s. Located at 23 East Tenth Street, the complex of buildings was added to the State and National Registers of Historic Places in the summer of 2012. Like the other hotels, it too attracted writers and artists and even political and social radicals.