Built in 1870, the Broadway Central Hotel (originally the Grand Central Hotel), was the largest hotel in the world. The eight-story, 400-room structure fronted Broadway between Bleecker and Third Street, then called Amity Street. Located in a prime entertainment district, the Broadway Central was luxe all the way: three fancy dining rooms, top of the line linens and furniture, the works.
But as the city’s nightlife and theater district marched north, the Broadway Central became sketchy, then sleazy. By the 1970s the building housed a flophouse called the University Hotel and an after-hours club catering to a glam-rock crowd.
After years of neglect, a wall of the structure collapsed suddenly and magnificently in 1973, killing four residents. The site is now occupied by a New York University law school dorm.
Tags: Broadway Central Hotel, Grand Central Hotel, NYU law school dorm
September 24, 2008 at 4:29 am |
[...] staged at the opulent Winter Garden Theatre, on Broadway and West 3rd Street (later the site of the Broadway Central Hotel and now an NYU law school dorm). The Booth brothers, who had never performed together, hoped to [...]
December 11, 2008 at 7:21 pm |
Hello wildnewyork:
Spent the past few days digging through your blog – it’s amazing stuff!
It’s cool you did a piece on the Broadway Central…I did a LENGTHY (7 parts) piece on the Mercer Arts Center about a month after you posted this. You might want to check it out…
http://thisaintthesummeroflove.blogspot.com/2008/09/pre-punks-let-their-freak-flag-fly-at.html
And there was another place located in the original hotel building from 1968-1972 called the St. Adrian Company…I just recently completed a piece on that as well. You can check that out here:
http://thisaintthesummeroflove.blogspot.com/2008/12/giving-up-ghosts-of-st-adrian-company.html
Best wishes on continued success with your blog…like I said, you’re doing some great work here. I have added a permanent link to your blog on mine…
Cheers!
NYCDreamin
December 27, 2008 at 6:06 pm |
Thank you so much! I’ll add your site to my blogroll too.