Gramercy Park Hotel was designed by
Robert T. Lyons and built by the developer brothers
Bing & Bing from 1924–1925, with an official opening in 1925. The hotel occupies the site of the former homes of the flamboyant
architect Stanford White, political leader and defender of
agnosticism Robert Ingersoll and lawyer-diarist
George Templeton Strong.
Humphrey Bogart married his first wife
Helen Menken at the hotel, and the
Joseph P. Kennedy family, including a young
John F. Kennedy, stayed on the second floor for several months, before the family moved to
London so the elder Kennedy could take up his post as the American ambassador. Weissberg added a gift shop, doubled the size of the bar and gave tenure to Pinky, the beloved hotel
bellhop. Guests were drawn to its
bohemian character, low prices and locale. The hotel's reputation for discretion attracted such musicians as
Bob Marley and
Bob Dylan in the 1970s. The Canadian and Chicago part of the first cast of
Saturday Night Live stayed in the hotel during the show's premiere and
Paul Shaffer, the show's original bandleader, continued to live in the annex for another 16 years. Other former residents include character actress
Margaret Hamilton, actor
Matt Dillon, and playwright
David Mamet. Other notable guests include
the Clash,
Madonna,
Debbie Harry, and
David Bowie. By the late 1990s the hotel's ratings began to decline, as Weissberg's health began to fail. His sons fought for control and, after a series of family tragedies, the hotel was subleased in 2002 to Steven Greenberg, the founder of the
Roxy nightclub. A bar was added to the roof but the restaurant closed. It began to attract a younger clientele and the prices began to increase rapidly. Following Weissberg's death in 2003 Gramercy Park Hotel was sold to
Ian Schrager and
Aby Rosen, who renovated the hotel in collaboration with artist
Julian Schnabel. Schnabel designed the interiors, many fixtures and furniture pieces throughout the hotel. In 2010, Schrager sold his interest in the hotel to Rosen. The Rose Bar anchored the hotel, along with the Jade Bar and rooftop Gramercy Terrace restaurant. It was also home to
Danny Meyer's Maialino, which served Italian cuisine. On April 23, 2014, conservationist
Mark Shand, the brother of
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, slipped and fell outside the Rose Bar, suffering a serious head injury and later that night died at the nearby
Bellevue Hospital. The hotel exhibited paintings by noted artists, including
Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Damien Hirst,
Richard Prince,
Julian Schnabel,
Cy Twombly and
Andy Warhol. The hotel ceased operations in March 2020 as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced in December 2020 that Rosen's hotel business faced eviction from the structure, because RFR was $900,000 behind on ground lease payments to Solil Management (the estate of developer
Sol Goldman), which owns the land underneath. Rosen had been leasing the property for $5.3 million per year. In April 2021, Solil moved to terminate Rosen's lease and collect $79.5 million in back payments, Rosen's lease was finally terminated in June 2022, and all of the hotel's furnishings were auctioned off shortly thereafter.
MCR Hotels acquired the lease to the hotel in 2023, with plans to reopen the hotel in 2025. After a dispute arose within the Goldman family in 2024, Rosen attempted to take back control of the hotel, claiming that a
stay of execution should be placed, reversing the termination of his lease. == In popular culture ==