The Prince George (New York City, New York) | apartment hotel / serviced apartment

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150-foot, 12-story Beaux-Arts hotel building completed in 1905. Designed by Howard Greenley for Charles Rogers, it extends through the block to East 28th Street. In 1912 it was expanded with an addition designed by Kenneth M. Murchison at 17 East 27th and became one of the largest hotels in New York City in the early 20th century. The hotel remained in the Rogers family until 1954, when it was sold. At about this time, the main entrance on East 28th Street was altered.

The 27th Street facade spans eight bays above the ground floor, which makes up part of the 2-story rusticated limestone base. The ground floor has six bays of large round-arches, with a narrower one on either side of the two wider arches. The narrower arches have doorways, while the larger ones contain triple-windows and are topped by carved stone ornament with faces. The 2nd floor has an enormous central cartouche. The windows have bracketed stone sills and splayed lintels with scrolled keystones. In between each window is a console bracket supporting a projecting cornice.

The midsection is visually split into two halves, each clad in red brick with extensive terra-cotta keyed window surrounds, molded hoods, and curved pediments on the 3rd floor. Large brackets support a pair of cornices above the 9th floor. The 10th-12th floors feature banded terra-cotta, arched fenestration at the 11th floor with foliated keystones, and a large central cartouche. The roof has a bracketed, green pressed-metal cornice with dentils.

On 28th Street, the original building section matches the design, but is only half as wide. The addition on 28th is also 12 stories tall, but with a slightly differing facade. It has three of the large arches at the ground floor, with entrances in the outer two. The six 2nd-floor windows lack the detailing, brackets and cornice seen at the older structure. The windows on the upper floors have brick surrounds, with stone lintels and scrolled keystones at the 3rd floor, joined by a fluted stone band. The windows above have stone sills and lintels with small shields and foliation. A small cornice with brackets at each window runs above the 9th floor, and a band course runs above the 11th floor. A similar but slightly smaller green copper roof cornice to the one on the original structure has modillions and dentils.

For decades, The Prince George Hotel and its restaurants were favorite gathering places. Even in the 1960s, well past its heyday, the hotel continued to draw middle-class tourists visiting New York. But as tourism experienced a steep decline in the 1970s, The Prince George, along with many smaller New York City hotels, lost its grandeur. With the rise in homelessness in the 1980s, private hotels, including The Prince George, began accepting contracts from New York City to house homeless families. During this period, 1600 homeless women and children occupied The Prince George, in conditions that rapidly deteriorated into squalor and danger. In 1989, after years of chaos, families were moved out by court order and the hotel was closed, remaining vacant for nine years.

In 1996, developer Common Ground acquired The Prince George Hotel, and with the help of government agencies and corporate partners, transformed the building into permanent supportive housing for homeless and low-income single adults. In 2005, Common Ground completed the restoration of the 5,000 square-foot Prince George Ballroom and adjacent former Hunt Room.

www.princegeorgeballroom.org/
hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c005893188?urlappend=%3Bseq=305...
dlc.library.columbia.edu/durst/cul:f4qrfj6q73
www.gothamgazette.com/article/fea/20050912/202/1565
archrecord.construction.com/people/profiles/archives/05...