The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-02-02
Commodore and Pennsyl-
vania Are Added to Long
Line of Courageous Ven
lures That Have Made
City Famous


. wi ago. when New York was a
village. Sam Fraunces, Black
sam to his crsnies, fixed up a tavern
that Vas the gathering place Of the
hloods Of his day. the fashionable and
uitramondaine. lie Was proud OF his
place and SO was New York. which was
apt to point to It as worthy sue
cessor to the Stadt Hys. He once
proudly described % as ";hree stories
high. with a tile and lead roof; has
fourteen fireplaces. a most excellent
kitchen. fine dry cellars, with good and
excellent Offices"
One wonders wha. Black Sam would
say If he could glimpse the modern
oaravansary OF 1000 rooms, where
minc host IL personified b. many rep
resentatives of n corporation. and the
white apron in the doorway has given
place to a gilded parsonage Of six foot
stature and disproportionate dignity
building which, with its retinues OF
servants and IT'S multitudes Of guests,
has population equal 70 the whole OF
New York in Frauncess day. Two OF
the little old taverns that he made
famous could be dropped in the ball
room Of the Commodore and still leave
room to dance. -.....
Progress Of Quarter Century.
But the great gap that divides
Fraunces's from our towering new hotel
structures is scarcely greater than the
strides that have been made in hotel
building in the last twenty-five years
Famous old inns whose erection dates
mark epochs in the history OF the city
lave passed away in that time. their
days Of glory only memories in the
minds Of elderly citizens, to give place
20 other more or less pretcntious mod
ern hotels. which in turn have gone.
So swift has been the development
~ hotels in size and concentration Of
rcsources that the whole transient
hotei population Of the city Is fast be- |
.ng gathered together into a few
mighty villages OF steel, where In years |
asst they have been scattered through |
scores Of more humble but possibly
more homelike places. The men who
nave built these great structures are
planning others mightier and even
moro daring and fantastic in design:
whole city squares Of them. worthy OF
The imagination of a Scheberezade or I
an Arnold Bennett. The novelist never
dreamed anything more imposing.
S'ructurally and mechanically, than
III" proposed Pershi,g Square.
One Of the strange things about II
All Is that despite so much building
the hotels of New York will not now
ac9ommodate moro people than they
old twenty-five years ago. For every
great hotel that has been built three
smaller ones have silently disap-
peared overwhelmed in the shifting
business currents of the city. Take
but n few Of the older and better
known hotels that have gone in the
last decade--the old Astor, the Fifth
Avenue. the Hoffman House, the Gill
>'y House. the Grand Union and tho
Nictoria--each was known all over
the country. though combined they +
Had a room capacity less than either
the new Commodore or the pennsyl-
vania.
Little Addition of Capacity.
So had the Stevens House. the
Metropolitan. the New York, Earle's.
he Everett House, tho Brunswick.
ne Metropole and the Lansham put
together. And Of the hotels built in
more recent times the imperial. Mar
Unique. Astor, Belmont. Holland
louise, Knickerbocker,. Claridge Bit
mere, Plaza and Vanderbilt will hold
Jaly few more guests than the COM
".ned McAlpin. Pennsylvania and
ommodore. And Frank J. Simpson,
''.e night manager OF the Hotel Nc
A.pn, who compiled the figures to
make the above comparisons possible.
'atImates that the increase OF rooms
IN the last twenty-five years. outside
u the apartment hotels, Is so slight
as 70 hardly be worthy Of notice. New
York cannot now and never has been
able in that time 10 provide for all
no people who clqmor at it's gates
accommodations. Mr. Simpson fig
ares that 5I,623 travellers day 10 the
utmost that the hotels can provide
tor' and that is much smaller than the
lumber OF transient guests who are