Dakota Apartments Fan Club (3-minute article)
Originally published on October 9, 1880.
THE MAMMOTH FAMILY HOTEL
Two years, at least, will be required for the completion of the grand family hotel for which the foundations have just been laid on the Eighth avenue, between Seventy-second and Seventy-third streets. The situation is, indeed, unsurpassed, it being high ground facing Central Park, and on the broad street forming the great connecting link with Riverside Park.
Of course, it is well known that Mr. Edward Clark, President of the Singer Manufacturing Company, and a large holder of West Side real estate, is to carry out this enterprise. He has a double object in erecting this extensive building, namely, to give an impetus to the improvement of the West Side, as well as to define the character of the buildings which should grace it, and to offer the city such an hotel as it is now greatly in need of, where persons of means can find a home equal in all its comforts and luxuries to our first class private dwellings, surpassing them in location and without their entailed discomforts and inconveniences; in short, such a place of residence as can be found in some of the capitals of Europe, where persons of the highest rank occupy the different clagex of similar family hotels, and live in great elegance.
In this country the conditions of living are different from those of all other countries except England, requiring the appointments of such an hotel to be superior to those of like buildings abroad, and it is the intention to make this one more complete in every detail of comfort, luxury and elegance than any yet erected.
The building has been designed by Mr. H. J. Hardenbergh, and will be erected under his supervision. It will be nine stories in height above the basement will occupy the whole frontage of 204 feet of the block on Eighth avenue, and present a front of 200 feet on each of the streets named. The style will be Renaissance, of the period of Francis 1st. The materials of fronts will be Nova Scotia stone and flue pressed brick, the former profusely used, handsomely moulded and carved. In plan the building encloses a large court, the pavement of which is on a level with the street and having an opening on the north side extending from the pavement to the roof line.
The main entrance is on the south (or Seventy-second street front), through a broad, open arched driveway into the court, in the four angles of which are the entrances and stairways to the different suites of apartments. The rooms for the porter or concierge open on this passage and command a view at all times. On the north front is a second or inferior entrance for persons on foot only. On the west side of the building will be a driveway running through from street to street, and this will be inclined to the level of the basement floor and be for the service of the building and of the tradespeople. Under the main court will be a second court reached by the driveway just named, where all the working of the great house may take place unseen.
There will be between forty and fifty suites of apartments, of sizes varying from five to twenty rooms, all of large proportions. On the main floor, fronting Eighth avenue and Seventy-second street will be a fine restaurant comprising main dining hall, cafe, and private dining rooms. This will have an entrance from the street direct, and will offer accommodations to transient visitors as well as to persons living in the house. Many of the suites will be arranged with kitchens attached, others with dining rooms only, so that it may be optional with tenants whether they are served from the restaurant or not.
The basement will be devoted to kitchens, engine rooms, janitors apartments and private storage rooms; the attics to servants rooms and laundries. The building will be entirely fireproof in every part and constructed in the most thorough manner. Seven large hydraulic elevators will run to different floors and as many staircases of iron and marble will be placed in different parts of the buildings. The woodwork throughout will be of the finest varieties in use, in many cases elaborately finished. The building will cost over a million dollars.
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Scott Cardinal (Architectural & Investigative Historian)