Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-09-27
FINEST HOTEL IN
WORLD TO OPEN.
The Plaza in New York Is the CostIiest
Hostelry Yet Built in This
Country.

NEW YORK, Sept. 21.-lSpecial. !
The new Plaza hotel, the latest addition
to New Works long list of palatial hostel
ries, is to be formally opened next Mon
day morning. The builders of the Plaza
claim that it is the CoStleSt and finest
hotel in the world. An idea of the cnor-
NOUS sum of money spent in the erection
of the Plaza may be had from the mere
statement that its cost was more than
double that of the magnificent Hotel
Astor, which was completed only two
years ago.
City of Hotel Palaces.
New York contains not only the larg-
est and most luxurious hotels of any city
III the world, but also more of them,
ranging in cost from S100O,000 to ST.
100000, which latter figure represents
the cost of the new Plaza. 1t is to I've
further remarked in the same connection
that the most luxurious hotels are by far
the most prosperous. The present effort
Is not to build economically, but eNpen-
Slvely-to crowd as much luxury as pos
Slblc into hotel building. for the rich New
Yorker can be counted on to make the
most lavish expenditure Il profitable in
Nestment. Counting permanent and
transient guests, the five score high-claSs
hotels IN the city of New York take care
or about 10000 people every day. The
lowest estimate places the average price
paid for rooms and board ut 500 Il day.
At that rate the receipts are $4,000 a
day. or $114,062,50O year.
Inc actual cost of the now Plaza is
said to be slightly in excess of that of
the Waldorf Astoria. heretofore consid-
cred the largest and most luxurious hotel
IN the world When the Waldorf-As-
torla was projected, almost every one
SAID 1t could not be made to pay. Yet
today 1t IS very profitable property. Il
IS hard to imagine Il house with 40 mag
nlilceut public rooms. more than 1900
guests rooms, and accommodations for
between 400 and 1900 people, being prac-
ucalIy titled all the time. but these fig
ureS represent the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. ac-
eommodations. and it is constantly
crowded.
AT Fifty-ninth and Fifth Avenue
The new Plaza occupies the site of the
old hotel of the same name at the cor
ncr of Fifty-ninth street and Fifth ave
nue., Opposite the entrance to Central
park and directly across from the Savoy
and Majestic hotels. The builders fig
ured at the beginning to spend about
$S,500,O00 on the structure, but later it
was found that in order to place the ho-
tel in that state of perfection which the
management claims cannot be reached by
any other hostelry in the world, it would
be necessary to add $1,000 900 to the
original estimated cost of the structure
And this additional sum was added
without the slightest hesitation.
Already, the management of the
PlaZa announces, a large percentage of
the suites have been leased. The hos
telry will have as its permanent guests
some well-known people, among whom
n ~n tHhT Nntn
Smith, Alfred 6. Vanderbilt. George j.
Gould, G. X. G. Billings, Mrs. Oliver
Hartman, Julius Fleischmann, John A.
Drake, Mrs. Wallace Shillito. A. H.
Moore, Richard Brewster, Jackson
Gourand and Mrs. Young Hayworth.
Big Prices for Rooms.
Some of these will pay $50 to 500 a
day TOR their rooms, exclusive of meals
For the famous royal suites $500 q day
will probably be asked for short periods
Though these rates seem enormous to
the majority of people the price paid in
reality is not in excess of what it would
cost to maintain a Fifth avenue home.
while the worries are less and the ac-
cOmmodatiOns better. 1t goes without
saying that the Plaza will be essentially
home for the rich. 1t marks the top
most notch in the luxury of metropolitan
life for men and women with large in
COuleS, WHO 10 not care TO undertake the
responsibility of keeping a city house of
their own.
An Immense Payroll
As may readily be imagined the pay
roll at the Plaza will be immense. The
general manager will have a chief stew
ard and half a dozen assistant stew
ards. There will be sixty cooks, fifty
chambermAids and an equal number of
housemaids, forty floor girls, sixty bell
boys, 200 walters, seventy-five laundress-
es, twenty-five pOrters, twenty bar
tenders, ten wine cellar men, fifteen
BARRIERS and about $50 women of all
work in the kitchen and elsewhere, who
may be said to look after the immediate
personal comfort of the guests The chief
engineer and his assistants, electric light
men, elevator men, plumbers, IOcllsmiths
and general repair men will easily num-
Der $50 more. Then there will be the
office staff and the accountants depart
ment, making all in all very nearly if
not quite 1900 men and women to be
paid off every week or every month. as
the case may be, aside from the pri-
waite servants engaged by guests and who
work under the general directions of the
hotel.