Essex House, ca. 1993.

This 44-story Art Deco building began construction one day after the Stock Market Crash in 1929. The depression slowed the building process and the hotel, with 509 rooms, opened in October 1931. The building's most well-known feature, the roof-topping six-story, red neon sign, was erected in 1932. Taken from it's bankrupt owners only a couple years after opening, it was owned for 15 years by the US Reconstruction Finance Corporation (which gave financial support and loans to local governments and businesses, following the Depression).

The hotel has cycled through various hotel chains and foreign and domestic business owners over the last 50 years. Today it is the JW Marriott Essex House, still topped by the iconic neon sign.