Going back in time at the Lucerne Hotel

The salmon-pink beaux-arts structure on the corner of 79th Street and Amsterdam Avenue is the Lucerne Hotel—formerly the Hotel Lucerne. Built in 1903, it was billed as “fireproof and quiet, in the pleasing part of New York” on the back of this promotional postcard.

In the early 20th century, the Lucerne was home to lots of movers and shakers—including Eugene O’Neill, who listed it as his address while away at school at Princeton University in 1907. His parents maintained a residence there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After decades as kind of a second-rate hotel, the Lucerne was cleaned up and redone, its terra cotta facade restored. Today, it looks strikingly similar now to the way it did over a century ago.