Hotel St. James (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / West 45th Street, 109

12-story Beaux-Arts hotel completed in 1900. Designed by Harry B. Mulliken, it has operated as the Hotel St. James since 1972. It is clad in grey-brown brick above a 2-story, white-painted, rusticated limestone base. The ground floor has three central round-arches, with the main entrance in the middle one. It has wood-and-glass double-doors approached by three grey granite steps, with wall-mounted lanterns framing the opening, and a peaked metal canopy. The other two arches have multi-paned windows, the western one extending lower. All three arches are topped by large, gold-colored keystones wrapped by swags. The end bay on the west side has a narrower segmental-arched doorway with wood-and-glass double-doors and transom, below a rounded metal canopy. The east end bay has a small, modernized storefront of glass and metal. The 2nd floor, which is banded, has a small central window flanked by two larger square-headed windows on each side. Stylized brackets, with pyramid-shaped capitals set in square, swag wraps, and bases consisting of three dentils like protrusions at the bottom surmounted by short rope molding forms, support a narrow stone balcony at the 3rd floor. The brackets are paired at the ends and around the middle bay.

The balcony railing at the 3rd floor has interspersed balustrades at each of the five bays, and panels in between. The brick wall behind the balcony is painted white around the lower parts of the 3rd-floor windows, of which the center one is again smaller. They all have limestone surrounds. There is a keystone at the small middle windows, but the other bays have larger and more elaborate bracketed cornices topped by pendants and swags.

The 4th floor has brick lintels above the windows, with stone impost blocks and keystones, curved above the small center window; this window also has a small, eared stone lintel below the brick one. The rest of the upper floors up to the 9th floor are the same, with every other floors alternating between having the curved brick lintel above the small center window, or just the smaller stone, eared lintel. All the windows have projecting stone sills, and there are white brick string courses connecting the sills on alternating floors. At the 9th floor the small middle window has a full stone surround, and a stone cornice separates the top of the facade.

The 10th floor has full stone surrounds with keystones at each window, including a double surround at the middle window. The 11th floor has simpler lintels with imposts, and a recessed area around the small middle window. A small string course caps this floor, and sets off the mansard roof of the top floor, which is pierced by five rounded dormers.

The hotel contains 145 guest rooms. The two small storefronts are occupied by Dunhill Cafe.

www.hotelstjames.net/about.html
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Coordinates:   40°45'25"N   73°58'59"W
This article was last modified 11 months ago