Mayfair Hotel

 hotel, 1902_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

7-story Beaux-Arts hotel completed in 1902. Designed by Neville & Bagge as apartments, it is clad in rusticated limestone and red brick. It was originally known as The Gotham; within two years the name was changed to the Hotel Van Courtlandt, although it still offered apartments for long-term residents. Operating the building as a hotel did not work out and when it was leased to Hugo J. Hunt on May 8, 1915, it again became an apartment house. In 1960 the Gotham was renamed the Mayfair Hotel.

The ground floor has three bays with a central entrance up two brown granite steps. The wood-and-glass double-doors are covered by a rounded, green canvas, clamshell canopy, and the round-arch of the entrance is topped by a large keystone just above the canopy. Slightly-projecting piers with small wall lanterns set off the center bay from the ends. The west end has a large opening with four reddish-wood-framed windows above a wide, horizontal panel fronted by planter boxes. There are three small lanterns above the windows, and below the right side, there is a small projection of the stone facade with a metal gate leading down a set of stairs to a basement service door. There is a matching set of four windows to the east of the entrance, with the bottom pane replaced by a large opening with a wood-and-glass door on the right and a gated doorway down a couple steps on the left, both accessing the ground-floor restaurant space. A suspended metal canopy covers these doors, and three more lanterns top the windows.

The 2nd floor has a shallow-arched double-window in the center bay, with a stone sill carried on brackets with foliate carving. The keystone of the arch also has foliate carving, and there is foliation above the shoulders of the arch. The projecting piers on either side are topped by large console brackets supporting an entablature, with a double band course extending from either side and capping the base. The end bays of the 2nd floor have paired, square-headed windows with sloped, green canvas awnings. A projecting, vertical, canvas sign is mounted to both edges of the facade.

The upper floors also have paired windows in the stone end bays, with red canvas awnings in the inner window of each pair. Below the 4th-floor windows are scallop-shaped sills above cartouches and keystones that resemble hanging pendants. Narrow stone pilasters frame these bays, with slender console brackets at the top of the 4th floor supporting stone cornices that were originally topped by iron railings; below the cornices are swagged friezes. There is a thin band of red brick to the outside of the stone at the end bays, and uniform stone quoins at the far edges of the facade. There is narrower limestone framing around the end-bay windows on the 5th floor. The center bay area is clad in red brick, with a single-window on each floor, also with red awnings. The 3rd- & 4th-floor windows have splayed limestone lintels with stylized keystones, and the 4th- & 5th-floor windows have footed sills.

A broad stone cornice sets off the top floors, with modillions and four console brackets. The 6th floor is similar to the 5th, except for quoins are thinner are spaced apart, there are no window awnings, the stone is not rusticated, and the windows have cornices with small brackets (joined cornices across the end bays). The top floor is faced in stone at the piers, without ornamentation. The end bays are topped by wide, arched, copper dormers, and a narrower arch tops the middle window. The dormers front a metal mansard roof that crowns the building. The ground-floor restaurant space is occupied by Cielo at The Mayfair.

www.mayfairnewyork.com/