142 W. 42nd St., New York, New York. County/parish: New York.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places April 11, 1980. NRIS 80002697.
1 contributing building.Also known as:
The Knickerbocker Hotel is a hotel at Times Square, on the southeastern corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Built by John Jacob Astor IV, the hostelry was designed in 1901 and opened in 1906. Its location near the Theater District around Times Square was intended to attract not only residential guests but also theater visitors.
The hotel is designed, largely in the Beaux-Arts style, by Marvin & Davis, with Bruce Price as consultant. Its primary frontages are on Broadway and 42nd Street. These facades are constructed of red brick with terracotta details and a prominent mansard roof. The Knickerbocker Hotel also incorporates an annex on 41st Street, built in 1894 as part of the St. Cloud Hotel, which formerly occupied the site. The 41st Street facade contains a Romanesque Revival designed by Philip C. Brown. The hotel contained 300 rooms, a restaurant, a coffee shop, and a roof bar. The original interior design was devised in 1905 by Trowbridge & Livingston, the scattered remnants of which include an entrance that formerly led from the New York City Subway's Times Square station to the hotel's basement.
The original hotel was home to Enrico Caruso and George M. Cohan, until it was shuttered in 1920, due to a decrease in business. The building was then converted to offices, becoming known as the Knickerbocker Building; it was the home of Newsweek magazine from 1940 to 1959 during which it was called the Newsweek Building. After major renovations in 1980, it became known as 1466 Broadway and was used as garment showrooms and offices. Following another renovation in 2001, it was known as 6 Times Square. The Knickerbocker was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and was designated a New York City Landmark in 1988. It was converted back to a hotel from 2013 to 2015, and restored to its original name.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319668