Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 239: Hotel History: The Algonquin Hotel, NY (1902)

Stanley Turkel | November 3, 2020

by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: The Algonquin Hotel (181 rooms) The Algonquin Hotel was originally planned as an apartment hotel with the idea of renting unfurnished rooms and suites on yearly leases to permanent tenants. When few leases sold, the owner decided to turn it into a transient hotel, which he was going to name “The Puritan”. Frank Case, the first general manager, objected and told the owner “it… contradicts the spirit of innkeeping. It is cold, forbidding and grim. I don’t like it.” When the owner replied, “You think yourself so smart, suppose you find a better name,” Case went to the public library to...