Hotel Hightower

**Hotel Hightower** is the title location of the Tower of Terror at Tokyo DisneySea.

## Description

Hotel Hightower is a hotel found at One Park Avenue, New York City, NY, 10016. It is 14 stories tall and was constructed in the 19th century.

### Features

* Exterior:
	+ **Gardens**: The gardens were located outside of the Hotel Hightower. They contained flowers which would induce madness for those who touched them while in bloom. This garden won the Waterfront Park Norticultural Society's presidents award for best show garden in 1898.
* Lobby Level
	+ Hotel Shops
	+ The Rajah's Pool
	+ Olympic Restaurant
* Mezzanine
	+ China Doll - Salon de Beaute
	+ Azteca Gaming Room
	+ Alexandria Library
	+ Solarium
* First Floor
	+ Lady's Retiring Room
* Second Floor
	+ Gentleman's Smoking Room
* Fourth Floor
	+ Atlantis Ballroom
* Fifth Floor
	+ Explorers Club Meeting Hall
* Sixth Floor
	+ Hightower Museum
* Seventh Floor
	+ Hightower Museum
* Thirteenth Floor
	+ Penthouse

Additionally, a large basement level serves as a storage area for much of Hightower's collection.

## History

The hotel was designed in the 19th century by architect Oscar Klinovski with construction having began on it in 1889. After three years of construction, the hotel was opened to much appraise on the January 24th of of 1892.. The hotel served as the home of S.E.A. and Pillagers Brigade member Harrison Hightower III along with holding many of his stolen and collected artifacts. Artifacts included a water idol head stolen from ruins in the Lost River Delta and the idol of African deity Shiriki Utundu.

At a New Year's Eve party in 1899, Harrison disrespected Shiriki and was subsequently pushed by an energy bolt down an elevator-shaft. Harrison was subsequently bound to the hotel as a ghost and prisoner of Shiriki Utundu with the hotel subsequently being closed down.

In 1912 it was going to be destroyed but was saved by the New York City Preservation Society, namely Beatrice Rose Endicott who was manipulated into having the hotel declared as a historic landmark by Hightower's manservant Archibald Smelding. Smelding intended on sacrificing new guests and tourists to Shiriki Utundu in hopes that the deity might take pity on Hightower's soul and free him.

## Appearances and allusions

### Mystic Manor

A portrait in Mystic Manor shows a meeting for the Society of Explorers and Adventurers occurring in 1899, before Hightower's untimely demise.

### Skipper Canteen

The Hotel Hightower is referenced in the menus for this restaurant in the description of the Shiriki Noodle Salad. It mentions the salad as having been served the night of Hightower's disappearance.

### Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

Managing Director Vanessa Capshaw of the New York Preservation Society sent a letter to Trader Sam about Billamongawonga, or Trader Bill, one of Harrison Hightower III's associates. She believes that he was Sam's grandfather, and gifted him a painting of him found in Hotel Hightower. The painting and the letter can be found at the Enchanted Tiki Bar at Disneyland.

## Connections

### Raging Spirits

Raging Spirits is referenced in the attraction's queue with photographs and murals showing it as the site of one of Hightower's expeditions. In turn, props were added around the Raging Spirits area in the form of crated artifacts due for shipment to New York and the Hightower Trust.

In 1883, Harrison Hightower III and his butler Smelding came to the ancient ruins during a Meso-American expedition. Hightower seized one of the Water God snake heads for his ill-gotten collection.

## Trivia

* Before its affiliation with the S.E.A., it is likely that the Explorers Club Meeting Hall was intended to reference the historic New York Explorers Club. This historic Explorers Club was founded in 1904 (5 years after the hotel's closure) and its ranks included the likes of Theodore Roosevelt.

## References

1. ↑ https://parkvault.net/2018/10/10/hightower-hotel-in-new-york-part-6-of-our-freefall-series/
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/Attractions/status/1082384534384062464/photo/1
3. ↑ https://vegandisneyworld.com/2019/09/04/skipper-canteens-options-and-the-new-vegan-naan/
4. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1888833644766222/permalink/1892806417702278/
5. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=866033770407&set=oa.1892801001036153
6. ↑ https://www.mousesteps.com/images/stories/Disneyland/Disneyland%202011/Trader%20Sams/IMG\_7374.jpg