The hotel's 132 year-old history is truly fascinating.
The hotel consisted originally as two hotels, built side by side by feuding relatives of the Astor family in 1893. Quite amazing, right? Situated on 5th Avenue in New York. The hotels were were demolished in 1929 to make way for the Empire State Building.
In the 1930s, the hotel invented room service. Can you imagine?
The idea of a new Waldorf Astoria hotel New York was met with excitement, the stock market had not crashed yet and the Depression had not arrived yet. The land for the new hotel was formerly owned by the New York Central Railroad. Even today, there is a private railroad platform, located beneath the Waldorf Astoria hotel. This secret train track (that's rarely opened for a public viewing) runs underneath Park Avenue and can only be accessed from an entrance within hotel.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously took advantage of this incognito mode of transportation—the platform even has an elevator that was big enough to hold his bulletproof automobile. Today, the train still sits waiting and ready to be presidentially boarded.
Like the original Waldorf Astoria hotel New York, it gained worldwide renown for its glamorous dinner parties and galas, often at the center of political and business conferences and fundraising schemes. Biennially since 1954, the hotel has served as the high society venue for the International Debutante Ball. Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco held their engagement party at the hotel in 1956.
In 2014 the hotel was sold to new investors, making it the most expensive hotel ever sold. The Waldorf Astoria closed in 2017 for renovations; the upper stories were converted into 375 condominiums, while the lowest 18 floors will retain 375 hotel rooms.
The Waldorf Astoria Hotel New York reopens in 2025 and our DMC in New York "The Shackman Group", already had a sneak peek!