Hotel Pennsylvania site (New York City, New York)

 hotel, high-rise, closed, historical building, historical layer / disappeared object, 1919_construction, commercial building

The Hotel Pennsylvania was demolished down to the ground level in 2023. Only the basement levels remain. The owner, Vornado, plans to replace it with a skyscraper office building. It is currently a vacant lot.

The Hotel Pennsylvania was built by the Pennsylvania Terminal Real Estate Company in 1919 and was designed by the noted firm of McKim, Mead & White who also designed the original Penn Station. It was operated by hotel magnate Ellsworth Statler. Located across the street from the station, the design was intended to harmonize with the other design by McKim. After Statler's death, his company bought the hotel outright and renamed it the Hotel Statler in 1948. It was sold, with the rest of his chain, to Hilton in 1954 and became the Statler Hilton. After Hilton sold it in 1980, it became the New York Statler, operated by Dunfey Hotels, a division of Aer Lingus. The hotel was sold again in 1983 and renamed the New York Penta. Finally, in 1992, it reverted to its original name, Hotel Pennsylvania.

The hotel had the distinction of having the oldest continuous phone number in New York still in use. That number, Pennsylvania 6-5000, was the inspiration for the Glenn Miller song of the same name. Many big band names played in the hotel's Cafe Rouge including the Dorsey Brothers, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

It closed in 2020 and demolition began in November 2021. It concluded in September of 2023.

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