The Lexington Hotel NYC

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (August 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Lexington Hotel, Autograph Collection
Location within New York City
General information
Location	511 Lexington Avenue (corner with 48th Street), New York, NY, 10017
Coordinates	40°45′54″N 73°58′18″W / 40.76500°N 73.97167°W / 40.76500; -73.97167
Opening	1929
Owner	DiamondRock Hospitality
Management	Highgate Hotels
Height	316 feet (96 m)
Technical details
Floor count	28[1]
Design and construction
Architect	Schultze and Weaver
Other information
Number of rooms	725
Number of suites	25
Number of restaurants	2
Parking	Valet Parking
Website
Official website

The Lexington Hotel, Autograph Collection is a hotel in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

History[]

The Lexington Hotel opened in 1929^[2] as the Hotel Lexington, at the height of the Manhattan midtown hotel boom, 1920s to the 1930s. The hotel opened with a promise by General J. Leslie Kincaid, president of the American Hotel Corporation, to provide a thoroughly modern house of refined atmosphere and exceptional service – without the annoyance and confusion that is often experienced in hotels catering to large assemblages.

The original architect was Schultze & Weaver whose first major commission job had been the large Los Angeles hotel today known as the Millennium Biltmore. Their later work included the Atlanta Biltmore Hotel, and the Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel. The firm also designed the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach and the Miami Nautilus Hotel. They designed several noted landmark hotels within New York City, including the Park Lane Hotel, the Waldorf Astoria,^[3] the Pierre Hotel and the Sherry-Netherland.

The Normanesque terracotta figures that decorate the Lexington Avenue entrance are reminiscent of those found on Notre Dame in Paris. Rows of terracotta-winged lions adorn the building’s façade. Beneath a metal canopy, inscribed with the hotel’s name, visitors pass through the expansive glass doors into the spacious marbled-floored lobby.

In the 1930s, the Lexington was run by hotel industry pioneer Ralph Hitz's National Hotel Management Company.^[4]

On 21 March 1992 Dazilyn Williams, a maid working at the hotel, was found with her throat slit in the bathtub of room 1522.^[5] The following month Nelson Rodriguez was arrested for her murder; police believed that he had been robbing the room when she came in to clean it.^[6]

Present day[]

The property now belongs to Marriott’s "Autograph Collection" of fifty hotels that have historic qualities to them.^[3] In 2014, a $46 million renovation was completed that restored historic architectural elements including the original brass elevator doors with songbird motifs.^[3]

Significance[]

The Hotel Lexington was home to many famous restaurants, nightspots and celebrities, including:

• Joe DiMaggio, baseball legend, who resided at the hotel between 1957 and 1962, while he was affiliated with the Monette Company.
• Marilyn Monroe lived here with DiMaggio during their brief marriage in Suite #1806.
• Dorothy Lamour, Hollywood celebrity

The hotel evolved and in the 1930s the “Hawaiian Room”^[7] opened in what is now "LQ". The Hawaiian Room was identified with entertainer Arthur Godfrey. Godfrey broadcast his radio show live from the Hawaiian Room. The hotel contained other venues such as the "Paul Revere Tavern," "Denim & Diamonds," "Chateau Madrid," and the "Playboy’s Empire Club" (bunnies with male counterparts called “Rabbits”) - in the 1980s.

References[]