The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1907-09-26
FINEST HOTEL IN
WORLD TO OPEN,
The Plaza in New York Is the Costllest
Hostelry Yet Built IN This
Country.


| NEW YORK, Sept. 21.-l Special l.
The new Plaza hotel, the latest addition
to New York's 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 costliest and finest
| hotel in the world. An idea of the cuor-
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
in the world, but also more of them,
ranging in cost from $1000000 to ST.
100000, which latter figure represents
the cost of the new Plaza. 1t as to he
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 cxpeu-
sively-to crowd as much luxury as pos
sible into hotel building, for the rich New
Yorker can be counted on to make the
most lavish expenditure profitable in
transient guests, the five score high-class
hotels in the city OF New York take care
of 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 Il
day, or S114 ,0G2 800 n year
The actual cost of the I,w Plaza is
said to be slightly in excess of that of
the Waldorf Astoria, heretofore consid-
"a Ia, al
in the world. When the Waldorf-As-
tOria was projected, almost every one
said it could not be made TO pay Yet
today If Is a very profitable property. 1t
is hard TO imagine a house with 40 mag
niticent public rooms, more than 1900
guests rooms, and accommodations for
betwe 1 400 and 1900 people. being prac-
ticallv filled all the time. but these fig
ures represent the Waldorf ac-
Commodations, and il 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 IlttY-uinth street and Fifth ave
nue, opposite the entrance to Central
park and directly across from the Savoy
and Majestic hotels The builders fig
ured ut the beginning to spend about
SS5DOoO on the structure, but later it
tel in that state Of perfection which the
management claims cannot be reached by
any other hosteiry in the world, it would
be necessary to add 100000 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, n large percentage of
the suites have been leased The hos
telry will have as its permanent guests
some well-known people among whom
are John w. Gates, Mrs. James Henry
Smith, Alfred G. Vanderbilt. George j.
Gould, G. X. c. Billings, Mrs. Oliver
Hartman, julius Flcisrhmann, John A.
Drake Mrs, Wallace Shillito. A. II.
Moore, Richard Brewster. Jackson
Gourand and Mrs. Young ITayworth.
Big Prices for Rooms.
Some of these will pay SO to 500 a
day tor their rooms, exclusive of meals.
For the famous royal suites $500 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 Fifth avenue home,
while the worries are less and the ar-
commOdatons better. 1t goes without
saying that the Plaza will be essentially
q home for the rich. II marks the top
most notch in the luxury of metropolitan
life for men and women with large in
comes, who do not care to undertake the
responsibility of keeping n 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 Ice sixty cooks. fifty
.n "a tftI md