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203 West 54 Street
205 West 54th Street
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[Amalgamated Bank, 1710 Broadway, and 205 West 54th Street.]

1975

205 West 54th Street

[Amalgamated Bank, 1710 Broadway, and 205 West 54th Street.]

IMAGE DATE1975
FromMuseum of the City of New York logoMuseum of the City of New York

The Albermarle, ca. 1975.

Opened in 1903 as the Hotel Carlton, this Beaux Arts structure stood 11 stories and hosted some of the city's high society. Over the next few decades, the hotel saw numerous name changes, broken windows from no less than two underground explosions (1912 and 1913), and thousands of tenants, well-behaved and overwise.

In the mid-1920s former actress and speakeasy proprietor Mary Louise Cecelia "Texas" Guinan opened Club Intime in the basement of the then-Hotel Harding. Despite Prohibition, the club served alcohol and featured scantily clad entertainment. (Upon her many arrests for liquor law violations, she always insisted her wealthy patrons brought their own liquor.) Dorothy Parker and her friends enjoyed drinking here. Club Intime closed and was soon replaced with a new spot which was just as notorious (this time as a mob hangout).

Renovated by Emery Roth in 1936, the hotel became a more traditional apartment house and today goes by one of its earlier names, The The Albemarle. The cozy bar in the building now called The Flute has hosted social events for the Dorothy Parker Society for more than 20 years.

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