The original Waldorf Hotel was built on the site of millionaire William Waldorf Astor’s mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street. The 13-story hotel opened on 13 March 1893. Four years later, Waldorf’s cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, erected the 17-story Astoria Hotel on an adjacent site. John Jacob Astor IV died on the Titanic on 15 April 1912. William Waldorf Astoria, having returned to England in 1893, died 18 October 1919.
In 1929, the owners decided to tear down the original building due to it becoming dated and the draining of its revenues caused by Prohibition. The site was sold to the developers of what would become the Empire State Building. The current location on Park Avenue opened on October 1st, 1931 as the tallest and largest hotel in the world. (Hilton.com)
Ballroom
Ground Level Layout
Detail of Bank, Ground Floor, 49th & Lexington Ave
Detail of Restaurant, Ground Floor, 50th & Lexington
3rd Floor – The Ballroom Floor
4th Floor
18th Floor – Featured a retractable roof that would open above the perforated ornamented screens over the roof garden. The Club Room was home to the Palm Bar.
20th Floor – The York Club
(Floor plans from Columbia University Libraries)
Secret Subway – There is a train platform under the Waldorf Astoria, Grand Central’s “abandoned” Track 61 – It was utilized by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other VIPs to shuttle them in and out of the hotel without being noticed. An ordinary door on 49th Street acts as a portal to the clandestine train platform.
1939 Map from Waldorf-Astoria advertising brochure
1930s Letterhead from the Waldorf-Astoria (below)