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 * The Hotel at Fifth Avenue/Hotel at Fifth Avenue/17 West 32nd Street/Aberdeen Hotel/Hotel Aberdeen/Aberdeen Hotel (Manhattan)/Hotel Aberdeen (Manhattan)/Aberdeen Hotel (New York City)/Hotel Aberdeen (New York City)
 * http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2076.pdf
 * ("hotel aberdeen" or "aberdeen hotel" or "hotel" "aberdeen" "32d st" or "hotel" "aberdeen" "32nd st" or "hotel" "aberdeen" "thirty-second st" or "hotel" "aberdeen" "32d street" or "hotel" "aberdeen" "32nd street" or "hotel" "aberdeen" "thirty-second street" or "17 west 32d" or "17 west 32nd" or "17 west thirty-second" or "17 w. 32d" or "17 w. 32nd" or "17 w. thirty-second" or "21 west 32d" or "21 west 32nd" or "21 west thirty-second" or "21 w. 32d" or "21 w. 32nd" or "21 w. thirty-second") and ("manhattan" or "new york") NOT ("spare times" OR "display ad" OR "classified ad" OR "advertisement" OR "arrival of buyers" OR "arrivals of buyers" OR "paid notice" or "theater guide")



Site
The Hotel at Fifth Avenue is at 17 West 32nd Street, on the northern side of the street, in the Koreatown neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The rectangular land lot covers an area of 7,169 ft2, with a frontage of approximately 74 ft and a depth of approximately 99 ft. The hotel shares the city block with the Martinique Hotel and the Pierrepont House to the west. Other nearby structures include the Empire State Building to the north, Herald Towers to the northwest, and the former Grand Hotel and the Hotel Wolcott one block south. Prior to the hotel's construction, the site had contained three residences, each measuring four stories high.

Architecture
The former Hotel Aberdeen was designed by Harry B. Mulliken in the Beaux-Arts style. It is 12 stories high, with a light court facing west. Mulliken had designed the structure shortly before forming a business partnership with Edgar J. Moeller.

Facade
Similar to in other structures designed by Mulliken and Moeller, such as the Hotel York and Bretton Hall, the facade of the Hotel at Fifth Avenue is made of brick and terracotta, clustered around a central bay. The 32nd Street elevation of the facade is made of brick and limestone and is primarily divided vertically into five bays. It is divided into three horizontal sections: a three-story base, seven-story midsection, and two-story capital. The base is clad largely in limestone, while the upper stories are mostly clad in brick with limestone decoration. Most of the windows on 32nd Street are sash windows. The facade's western elevation contains a plain brick wall with a light court; the upper stories of the western elevation have plain sash windows with stone lintels.

Base
The ornate, curved main entrance is at the center of the facade. It is placed within a recessed double-height segmental arch, which is surrounded by festoons and is topped by a cartouche. A recessed stoop leads up to a set of doors with a glass transom window above it. The arch is flanked by columns with bands, vermiculation, and brackets that resemble figurines; the tops of these columns contain Ionic-style capitals with foliate ornament. Above the columns is a balcony at the third story with a sinuous balustrade. The underside of the balcony contains a soffit with paneling, while the balustrade contains festoons, brackets, a flagpole at the center, and pedestals on either end. These pedestals support large brackets with foliate decoration and scrollwork, which in turn support a molding with another sinuous balcony at the fourth story.

In the four outer bays, the first and second stories of the hotel's facade are clad with banded limestone blocks, while the third story is clad with alternating limestone and brick bands and is topped by a convex band of decorations. At ground level, the eastern two bays of the facade contains a storefront with plate-glass windows, while the western two bays contain segmentally arched windows. There are splayed lintels above each of the ground-level openings, which contain projecting keystones at their centers. The second-story windows contain projecting window sills with scrolled-ironwork railings. At the third story, the outermost windows are surrounded by quoins and have slightly projecting balconettes with balustrades. The second-outermost windows on the third story have balustrades and are topped by medallions and keystones. Smaller windows on that story, flanking the central bay, have flat window sills.

Upper stories
The window sills on the fourth story contain iron railings. On the fourth through ninth stories, the center bay contains projecting galvanized-iron windows with carved spandrel panels and ornamental colonettes. The windows are flanked by limestone quoins, which contain garlands and lions' faces at the fourth and ninth stories. At the tenth story is a broken pediment with floral, foliate, and shell patterns. At the center of the pediment is a window with a cartouche and floral patterns on its sill, as well as festoons and a keystone above. On the fourth through tenth stories, the second-outermost bays are largely clad in brick except for limestone bands between each story, while the outermost bays are clad in alternating brick and limestone paneling. These bays have square-headed windows with foliate decorations, corbeled sills, and splayed keystones. In the outermost bays, the keystones protrude slightly from the facade, and there are cartouches, garlands, and festoons around the fourth- and tenth-story windows.

Above the tenth story, there is a molding with lintels, festoons, and brackets in the central bay. On the eleventh and twelfth stories, the center and outermost bays are clad in limestone, while the second-outermost bays are clad in brick. The limestone bays have windows with foliate decoration, masks, and cartouches, as well as corbeled sills; there are keystones above each window. In the brick bays, each window has corbeled sills, splayed keystones, and a keyed limestone frame, and the 11th-story windows are topped by spandrels with festoons. On the twelfth story, there is a foliated keystone above each bay, as well as a metal cornice supported by brackets.

Interior
Originally, the hotel had 154 guestrooms, although this had been expanded to 216 guestrooms by the 1950s. The hotel was rethemed to the island of Manhattan during the mid-1990s, after which it had 169 rooms. The ground floor had a lobby with sketches of Manhattan, as well as a Korean restaurant. The guestrooms were themed after either Central Park, the SoHo neighborhood, or the area around Fifth Avenue; they all had decorations such as lamps shaped like the Statue of Liberty.

By the early 21st century, the hotel had a fitness center. There was also a rooftop bar that faced the Empire State Building, which was enclosed in glass. The rooftop bar was known as the Me Bar during the 2000s.

History
By the late 19th century, apartment hotels in New York City were becoming desirable among the middle and upper classes. When the Aberdeen Hotel was developed at the beginning of the 20th century, many commercial structures were being developed around Herald Square. Manhattan's theater district had begun to shift northward along Broadway, from Union Square and Madison Square to Herald Square and eventually Times Square, during the first decade of the 20th century. Half a block to the east, new department store buildings were quickly being developed on Fifth Avenue. Because of growing demand for these theaters and department stores, numerous hotels were developed on Broadway between Madison Square and Times Square, a half-black to the west during the late 19th and early 20th century. The opening of Pennsylvania Station, Macy's Herald Square, and the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad's 33rd Street Terminal in the 1900s further spurred growth immediately around Herald Square.

Development and opening
John L. Cadwalader had acquired three four-story residences at 17–21 West 32nd Street at the beginning of the 21st century. The City Real Property Investing Company acquired the three residences at 17–21 West 32nd Street in December 1901, paying $240,000. Sources disagree over what happened next. The New York Times and the New-York Tribune reported in February 1902 that George E. Coleman acquired the lots from the City Real Property Investing Company for $250,000. The same April, the Real Estate Record and Guide reported that the Alliance Realty Company, which had owned the building since the preceding December, had agreed to sell it to the partnership of Irons & Todd. Henry Clay Irons and J. R. Todd, along with Willard Barse, had founded a development firm known as the Old Colony Company the previous year. The Alliance Realty Company gave Old Colony a $315,000 mortgage loan in late May 1902 to fund the construction of a twelve-story apartment hotel at 17–21 West 32nd Street, which was to be completed by the following October.

Old Colony officially took over the site on June 3, 1902, and hired Harry B. Mulliken as the hotel's architect. That August, Mulliken submitted plans to the Manhattan Bureau of Buildings for a 12-story hotel costing $550,000. The plans indicated that the building would be made of "brick, limestone, granite, [and] terra cotta" and would have a tin roof. By April 1903, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company had given a $400,000 mortgage for the hotel. Work commenced on May 3, 1903, and the hotel opened later that year. The building was originally known as the Wrightworth, operated by George L. Wright Jr. After Wright went bankrupt in June 1904, a receiver took over the hotel, prompting all of its employees to go on strike. The next month, a bankruptcy court ordered that the hotel's furnishings be sold at auction. The hotel was operating as the Aberdeen by the end of 1904.

1900s to 1920s
Irons and Todd sold the Aberdeen and two other apartment hotels in Manhattan to the estate of E. M. Rush in December 1904 for a combined $4.15 million. At the time, the Thirty-second Street Hotel Company held a 21-year lease on the property. The Washington Post reported that Richard Lewis Howell, a prominent Episcopal preacher, was the real owner of these structures. When Howell died at the hotel in February 1910, he bequeathed his $5 million estate, including the Aberdeen, to his 24-year-old widow and their two children.

Louis Markel acquired the Aberdeen in April 1912, at which point the hotel was valued at $2 million. He immediately announced plans to conduct $100,000 worth of renovations, which involved adding 40 bathrooms and 60 bedrooms. After dividing some of the larger suites, Markel leased the hotel to the Aberdeen Hotel Company. The hotel's original stoop was replaced with a smaller one in 1914. The Aberdeen Hotel Company bought the hotel outright in 1915. A group of investors formed a syndicate in December 1919 to buy the Aberdeen and convert it into industrial lofts, but this did not happen. Over the years, the hotel's guests included New York City mayor Jimmy Walker, as well as Lillian Russell and Diamond Jim Brady.

In May 1921, the Dase Realty Company acquired the Hotel Aberdeen in exchange for an apartment building on Riverside Drive. U.S. federal agents raided the hotel's restaurant in that December after being notified that the restaurant was violating the Volstead Act, which prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages in the U.S.. By the early 1920s, the Aberdeen was one of three hotels in New York City that treated male and female guests equally, along with the Hotel Willard and the Great Northern Hotel. At the time, most hotels either refused to admit single women at night (even if the women were already guests at the hotel), or they placed single women in a separate part of the hotel. The 1923 Riders Guide to New York City described it as "catering to the traveler of moderate means, especially women traveling alone". The Dase Realty Company leased the Hotel Aberdeen to the 17 West 32nd Street Operating Corporation in February 1923. The lease ran for 20 years and cost $1.2 million. The new operators planned to renovate the hotel extensively. Philip Blass bought the hotel's leasehold from Arthur Stewart, one of the Dase Realty Company's principals, in March 1927.

1930s to 1970s
A renovation of the hotel was completed in 1931; the project included new decorations, furnishings, and high-speed elevators. Afterward, George L. Kathan was hired as the hotel's manager. The ground-level spaces became storefronts in 1933, and the hotel's restaurant was rented to Jack Starzis in 1934. The hotel was being renovated again by 1937, at which point Joseph E. Martire was managing the hotel. The cornice had been modified by this time, and the interior was renovated between 1938 and 1941. The Office of Price Administration, an agency of the U.S. government, accused the Aberdeen's operators of overcharging rent in 1944; the case was settled the next year, when the operators agreed to refund tenants' rent and pay damages. By then, the hotel had 250 rooms and was operated by Joseph Amigo. Nat Freedman, a real estate developer from Brooklyn, agreed to buy the Aberdeen's operating lease in August 1946. Freedman finalized his acquisition in 1947, paying cash and assuming responsibility for payments on the hotel's $590,000 mortgage.

A group of investors led by Nathan Lidsky bought a 50-percent stake in the hotel's operation in 1950, with plans to spend $50,000 to $60,000 on renovations. The Aberdeen Hotel Corporation, which still owned the building, sold it in April 1953 to Aberdeen Associates Inc., a group of investors represented by lawyer Louis Schlesinger. The new owners renovated the hotel again the same year. The partnership of 17 West 32nd Associates sold the hotel's lease in 1959 to the New Aberdeen Hotel Corporation. The hotel was involved in a controversy in 1968, when an off-duty firefighter was charged with property damage after he tried to rescue a couple who were stuck on one of the hotel's elevators. This led to a lengthy legal dispute that was only resolved in 1974, when a jury found that the city government had falsely arrested the firefighter.

By the early 1970s, the Aberdeen was known as a welfare hotel. The New York City Department of Social Services reported in 1972 that it had 150 clients living at the hotel, all of whom had been released from mental institutions. Even though the general public could still occupy the rooms, about 50 percent of the hotel was occupied by mentally ill residents by 1973, leading the New York Daily News to describe it as "an unofficial and makeshift halfway house for the city's mentally ill". The Aberdeen operated several programs for disabled or mentally ill residents, who received services from the Catholic Church and from local organization Hudson Guild. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Francis of Assisi operated a dayroom and counseling room for mentally ill residents, many of whom went there after being released from Bellevue Hospital or Manhattan State Hospital. In 1974, the hotel began turning away people who received Supplemental Security Income, as they could not pay the $180 monthly rent. By the next year, 75 percent of the rooms were occupied by mentally ill residents.

1980s to present
The Apple Core hotel chain acquired the Aberdeen in 1978. The hotel's owners announced plans to turn the building into luxury apartments, prompting the St. Francis Church to begin raising money for the St. Francis Residence, another building to house mentally ill residents. By 1981, only 60 mentally ill residents remained at the Aberdeen. Thereafter, the hotel was operated as part of the Chatwal Inns chain but retained its name. By 1992, the New York City government was again using the Aberdeen as a welfare hotel because of overcrowding in homeless shelters.

In 1995, the former Aberdeen was rethemed to the island of Manhattan, advertising itself as "All of Manhattan in One Hotel"; it became a budget hotel in the Best Western chain and was renamed the Best Western Manhattan. The Aberdeen was one of three hotels in Manhattan that Apple Core had renovated during the mid-1990s. Afterward, the Best Western Manhattan and Apple Core's other hotels in the area operated as budget hotels. A Korean restaurant known as Dae Dong had opened at the building by the late 1990s. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Best Western Manhattan as a city landmark in January 2001.

Despite a decline in demand for hotel rooms in New York City following the September 11 attacks, the Best Western Manhattan was renovated in the early 2000s for $2.5 million. The former Aberdeen was rebranded as a La Quinta Inn in December 2002, after the renovation was completed. To attract guests following the September 11 attacks, the La Quinta Inn Manhattan reduced its room rates. BCD Tofu House moved into the hotel's ground story in 2008. During the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, in 2020 and 2021, the New York City government temporarily used the Hotel at Fifth Avenue as emergency housing.

Critical reception
When the hotel was operating as the Best Western Manhattan, a New York Times reporter wrote in 1997 that the rooms were "small and dark, but are clean and have coffee makers and Nintendo games". A critic for The Washington Post, writing in 2006, said that the hotel was the "most boutique-like" in the Apple Core chain, saying: "The rooms are tasteful but rather snug, as is the fitness center".
 * https://www.oyster.com/new-york-city/hotels/the-hotel-fifth-ave/