Passenger Trains > Hotel Pennsylvania coming down

The Hotel Pennsylvania is going to come down, Steven Roth has told his Vornado shareholders. That’s not a shock. It’s an old-fashioned hotel with a great many small rooms, on an extremely valuable site directly across from Pennsylvania Station, fronting on Seventh Avenue. Because it’s lost some luster over the years, the hotel probably has a rough time drawing business travelers. I stayed there as a young person around 1984, and by that time it was passable but dowdy. Judging by some of the recent reviews on TripAdvisor (e.g., “a real life episode of American Horror Story” and “there were blood stains on the pillows”), it’s slipped further since then. Eight years ago, Roth said that he was planning to renovate and turn it into something great, but we live in a different economic climate now, and the empty air above that giant site at 401 Seventh is apparently just too tempting to resist. A 1,270-foot tower, bearing the not-at-all-phallic name of PENN15, is its likely replacement.

More: https://www.curbed.com/2021/04/so-long-to-the-hotel-pennsylvania.html

Sadly, Dave Barry's (in)famous satire about the Fleabag, er, Hotel Pennsylvania, "Hotel, Schmotel, I'll just stay in the street," no longer turns up in a Google search on my phone. It is well worth a read, if we can turn it up.

Meanwhile, here's a salute to fine things that once were, at Pennsylvania 6-5000.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/21 12:08 by GenePoon.

Good. 

I wonder who will get PEnnsylvania 6-5000.

ctillnc Wrote:
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> I wonder who will get PEnnsylvania 6-5000.

LOL! You know; the exact same thought occurred to me when I read this too!

I grew up a Glenn Miller fan because my Mom and Dad loved his music.

CW

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They building a New Hotel on the site then or what??

ctillnc Wrote:
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> I wonder who will get Pennsylvania 6-5000.

Who got Murray-Hill 5-9099 (Ricky Ricardo's) ? 

Then the stub tracks 1 -4 can be extended east at least 4 car lengths.

railcity Wrote:
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> They building a New Hotel on the site then or
> what??

"A 1,270-foot tower, bearing the not-at-all-phallic name of PENN15, is its likely replacement."
 

Thanks to a correspondent, I got the Dave Barry satire piece under a different title. Maybe he had to change it under legal action by the Hotel Shpennsylvania:


Hotel, Schmotel, I'll Just Stay In the Street

Dave Barry — Jun 2nd, 2002

So we went to New York City for some urban excitement, which began when we saw our hotel. To avoid hurt feelings, I will call it by a made-up name, "The Hotel Shpennsylvania." It's in midtown Shmanhattan, across the street from Shmadison Square Garden.

The Hotel Shpennsylvania was apparently built around the time that North America became a separate continent. I am told that, at one time, it was quite elegant. Of course, I am also told that, at one time, Elizabeth Taylor was a virgin.

Our first whiff of the Hotel Shpennsylvania experience came when we entered the lobby, which is furnished in a functional yet practical style, consisting of: a floor. There is more seating provided on the lunar surface than in the lobby of the Hotel Shpennsylvania. This leaves plenty of room to stand, which is what we did for quite a while, in a check-in line approximately the length of the Great Wall of China, but not moving as fast. If you have a loved one who mysteriously disappeared years ago and has not been heard from since, you should consider the possibility that this person is simply attempting to check in to the Hotel Shpennsylvania.

The good news was, we finally got a room. The bad news was, it was room 436. If you ever get a chance to stay in this room, I advise you to say: "Thanks, but I'd prefer a dumpster, if there's one available." I say this because room 436 is very Spartan. I use the word "Spartan" not only in the sense of "austere" but also in the sense of "last renovated in 500 B.C."

The walls, ceiling and floor appeared to be made of compressed grime; you got the feeling that if you took a damp cloth and started wiping the walls, you would wipe a hole right into the next room. These walls had no decoration of any kind, unless you count stains. One of the window shades had fallen down, revealing a sweeping panoramic view of: a wall.

There were no chairs. There were two sad old beds with mattresses that felt like they were stuffed with dead squid, and a battered desk with a sign on it informing us - I am not making this up - that new furniture had been ordered for the room, but it had not arrived yet. This sign appeared to be several years old.

When you turned on the bathtub taps, what came out looked like some kind of weak soup. Maybe this was a hotel selling point ("All Rooms With Hot and Cold Running Broth!").

Of course, we should have marched down to the desk and demanded a new room, or even checked out. But we did not, for two solid reasons: (1) We didn't want to wait in the lobby line again, and (2) We are shmorons. So, instead, we went out for the evening. Then, like characters in a bad horror movie who, against all common sense, go down into the dark basement, we returned to room 436.

We enjoyed a restful night until about 1 a.m., when the couple next door returned to their room. This couple was really hitting it off, if you know what I mean. I did not realize that it was physically possible for humans to hit it off that many times in one night. We could hear them clearly, because compressed grime does not block sound well, and they were hitting it off with intensity, passion and what sounded like at least four head of cattle.

During those brief periods when the couple was resting, smoking cigarettes, watering the livestock, etc., we would listen to the people in the room on the other side, who apparently were in town for the International Convention of Loud Talkers With Insomnia. They were having a fine time, the kind of time when everything is so hilarious that everybody must repeat it at least four times.

A distinct aroma drifting through the grime made us wonder if they were using shmarijuana, but of course that would be illegal, even in New York. Whatever it was, it quieted them down for brief periods, during which the couple on the other side would rouse the steers again. Before we knew it, it was dawn.

Other than that, we had a fine time in New York, a truly great city with some of the world's best museums, theaters, restaurants and shopping. Some day we will go back and actually see these things. On this trip, we mainly napped. When we do go back, we won't stay at the Hotel Shpennsylvania. We'll stay somewhere farther from the "heart of the action." Such as Shmontana.

Our family stayed there in 1965 when it was a fine hotel, the Statler-Hilton, after Hilton acquired the smaller chain. PRR's direct passage underground to the REAL Pennsylvania Station, which was being demolished, was still open.

I stayed there during Super Bowl 48 weekend and while yes, it's a dump, you should know that when booking a stay there
from just doing a little research. Bring your own pillowcase and a sheet for example. At least they price the rooms accordingly
and of course, the very best thing about the place is the location. 

There are plenty of other hotels within a couple of blocks

https://www.google.com/maps/search/Hotels/@40.7487914,-73.9913805,17z?hl=en

Back about 10+ years ago, walking to my Amtrak coach at WAS, I slipped on an un-mopped water puddle and fell between the platform edge and the car side of my soon departing train. I yelled so loud that the conductor down the platform gave a wash-out to the engineer thus saving the lower half of my torso. The conductor and a porter came over to see what had happened, but refused to help me out of the jam despite my begging. (I guess they did not want to write an accident report.) Eventually, I was able to pull myself free. Then the conductor gave the highball and off train went without me! As a result, I had to take another train to NYP, thus missing my connection onward from there. So, Amtrak gave me a voucher for a night at the Hotel Pennsylvania across the street. It was the foulness place I have ever stayed in. My room door was a sheet of unpainted plywood with a makeshift door knob. Amtrak management is the worse, most vile management of any company in any field I have ever known. I'm happy that horrible hotel is gone, next it should be Amtrak management that is exterminated! To be fair however, Amtrak did refund my ticket. 

I don't ever remember this place as being nice.  Back in the early 1980's the coffee shop had a moment of fame when it received the most health code violations on a single inspection of any restaurant in NYC ever up to that time.

Then there was the Biltmore, I believe a NYC hotel with direct passage to Grand Central.  Stayed there in 1979;  all good, and a fine dinner.  Anyone know if it is still there?

> Who got Murray-Hill 5-9099 (Ricky
> Ricardo's) ? 
>
That number would have taken FOREVER to dial!

Many probably won't understand, but if you're old enough to remember Ricky and Lucy, you're old enough to remember how long it took to dial 9's and 0's. lol

OregonHoosier Wrote:
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> > Who got Murray-Hill 5-9099 (Ricky
> > Ricardo's) ? 
> >
> That number would have taken FOREVER to dial!
>
> Many probably won't understand, but if you're old
> enough to remember Ricky and Lucy, you're old
> enough to remember how long it took to dial 9's
> and 0's. lol

I have 8 landline phones hooked up, and 3 of them have dials. 

Stayed  once  10  years   ago.  Hard  to  check in. Room  fine  with a  direst  view of  Empire  State  Building.  More new  samo samo  tower  coming to new  York?!! Dull.

Never stayed there, but when I was living in NJ and working at 33rd and 5th, had a friend stay there. Met him in the lobby to go to Shea for a Mets game in 1983. He kind of shrugged and explained to me, "It's pretty awful but pretty cheap. I can do twice as many New York trips a year by staying here."

The underground passage from NYP to the Hotel Pennsylvania and on to Gimbels / Hudson & Manhattan 33rd street station was very useful in wet weather.

It eventually became a dark, dirty, stnking, dangerous place and was closed.

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