American Hotel: The Waldorf-Astoria and the Making of a Century

by David Freeland

Completed in 1931, New York’s Waldorf-Astoria towers over Park Avenue as an international landmark and a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture. A symbol of elegance and luxury, the hotel has hosted countless movie stars, business tycoons, and world leaders over the past ninety years.
 
American Hotel  takes us behind the glittering image to reveal the full extent of the Waldorf’s contribution toward shaping twentieth-century life and culture. Historian David Freeland examines the Waldorf from the opening of its first location in 1893 through its rise to a place of influence on the local, national, and international stage. Along the way, he explores how the hotel’s mission to provide hospitality to a diverse range of guests was put to the test by events such as Prohibition, the anticommunist Red Scare, and civil rights struggles. 
 
Alongside famous guests like Frank Sinatra, Martin Luther King, Richard Nixon, and Eleanor Roosevelt, readers will meet the lesser-known men and women who made the Waldorf a leader in the hotel industry and a key setting for international events.  American Hotel  chronicles how institutions such as the Waldorf-Astoria played an essential role in New York’s growth as a world capital.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

372 pages, Hardcover

First published May 14, 2021

About the author

David Freeland is the author of the books Automats, Taxi Dances and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan’s Lost Places of Leisure; Ladies of Soul, and American Hotel: The Waldorf-Astoria and the Making of a Century. As a historian and journalist, he has written for the Wall Street Journal, am New York, Time Out New York, New York History, American Songwriter, and other publications. He appeared in episodes of NBC TV’s “Who Do You Think You Are” and NYC Media’s “Secrets of New York.” Freeland lives in New York, where he leads walking tours and gives lectures on the city’s culture and history.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say about American hotel? I had no idea the Waldorf-Astoria was still open until 2017. Its supposed to reopen with only a few hundred rooms.

I think the first time I heard about the Waldorf was when I read a book about Nicola Tesla. He had lived there for awhile.

One of the things that surprised me about the Waldorf was that there were two of them. The first one opened in I think 1893 and was torn down in 1929. And the second one which opened in 1931 and closed in 2017. The second one covered an entire city block. Wow. That sound big.

Anyway American hotel goes into some detail about two of its managers. George Bolt and Lucius Boomer. Which I found interesting. And it also talks about some of the bigger events that the hotel hosted over the years. One of them was the 1924 Democratic convention.

As I was writing the above sentence I though of one thing I wanted to write about that surprised me. I am not sure how long the policy lasted but, the hotel would not allow unmarried men and women to stay in the same hotel room.

I am not sure if I have it exactly right but, even if you the were friends they could not even visit each other inside their hotel rooms. And there were I think ushers on each floor watching for things like this. And Joe smith the house detective of the Waldorf would come and knock on your door if you were found to be doing this. How times have changed. I think people could be throwing out of the hotel for violations like this. Wow.

Also I was just thinking that I think the Waldorf when it opened was the Waldorf and only later did the Astoria get built and added onto the name.

Oh, yes and I also found it interesting that there were or are people who liked to sit in the lobby and people watch. Some of them were even regulars. And I don't think they had to be renting an hotel room to do it. I can't remember the name for them. But, that actually might be fun to do.

[Adrien Aloi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so disappointed by this read! I think knowing that the author was there on the evening of the hotels closure, I expected it to be more about the restoration process/keeping historical elements etc. I felt like it was way more American History than actually about the hotel. I did love learning about how progressive the hotel was in many aspects over the years. It took me a while to get through - I think it was just too far from what I expected.

[Beth]

Too densely written for the amount of time I can allocate to reading it.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it but it didn’t go as deep as I would have liked in to the history of the Astor’s in the beginning and then got a bit political at the end.