According to this century-old postcard, $2 at the Hotel Arlington in genteel Madison Square gets you a room and a bath. Looking for a suite? That’ll run you at least $4.
Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and 25th Street hasn’t changed excessively since the early 1900s. Madison Square Park is just as pretty, but it’s no longer all that centrally located.
The Arlington Hotel building still stands and it’s still a hotel—a Comfort Inn. A low-rise holdout building that could be the one in the postcard (though remodeled) sits on its right.
The Gothic Revival church across the street remains. Built in 1868 by Richard Upjohn, it was once Trinity Chapel and is now home to a Serbian Orthodox congregation.
Tags: 25th Street New York, Comfort Inn New York City, Hoffman House 25th Street, Hotel Arlington Madison Square, Madison Square 1900, New York in 1900, Richard Upjohn architect, Serbian Orthodox Churct NYC, vintage New York postcards
Ephemeral New York 
January 25, 2013 at 4:35 am |
What a surprise to see the Arlington Hotel — or the Hotel Arlington, as my parents called it when they became tenants there with my older sister and brother in 1950. After living five years in a displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria, they eventually found a place in the Arlington, with the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They stayed in the hotel until they moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to open up a luncheonette.
January 25, 2013 at 6:10 pm |
Wow, what a story. I wonder what Madison Square was like in those post-war years, and if the hotel was mostly or all longer-term tenants.
January 26, 2013 at 3:58 pm |
A not so well known writer lived in the Arlington Hotel in the 1950s, Arthur Chester, a freaky, flaky character who always wore a wig, due to a childhood illness. I read his bio in Edward Field’s The Man Who Loved Susan Sontag, spent his years in dire poverty. There’s more of him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Chester
January 27, 2013 at 11:53 am |
According to NEW YORK SONGLINES, the low rise hold out was a Clergy House designed by Richard Upjohn for the Trinity Chapel across the street. The other big building with a flag is the Hoffman House, an elegant hotel.
January 27, 2013 at 5:46 pm |
Yes, Hoffman House deserves its own post! Here’s a little history:
http://books.google.com/books?id=cKkUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA204&dq=hoffman+house+madison+square&hl=en#v=onepage&q=hoffman%20house%20madison%20square&f=false
February 9, 2017 at 9:33 am |
When my boyfriend and I moved from Seattle to NYC in summer 1975, our first home was at the Arlington. I’m happy it’s got a whole new life. We liked it there.