It’s tough to imagine the grand Carlyle Hotel getting off to such an inauspicious start.
The exquisite Sylvan Bien designed hotel, at 35 East 76th Street on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue couldn’t have picked a worse time to open its doors. It was the time of the Great Depression, and by 1931, this ‘masterpiece in the modern idiom’ had already been forced into receivership.
Despite its towering Art Deco elegance, it wasn’t until after World War Two that the Carlyle came into its own. Then, New York tycoon Robert Whittle Downing took ownership of the hotel, transforming it into a paradigm of luxury accommodation. Downing’s aim was that anyone who was anyone would want to stay here. It’s safe to say he achieved this. Harry S. Truman became the first US President to stay in the Carlyle in 1948. Right up until Bill Clinton in the 1990s, every one of Truman’s successors had stayed here.
The most famous presidential figure to kick back at the Carlyle was John F. Kennedy. He in fact owned an apartment here on the 34th floor for 10 years. Kennedy is also rumored to have sneaked Marilyn Monroe into the Carlyle via its labyrinth of underground tunnels, following her notorious “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” episode in 1962.
Celebrities are constantly to be spied around the Carlyle. Woody Allen has played clarinet with his jazz band at the hotel’s café since 1996. Cabaret singer Bobby Short used to appear here regularly too. Former president of the Carlyle, Dan Camp remembers one surreal encounter in which Princess Diana, Michael Jackson and Steve Jobs were all in his elevator at the same time. Awash with celebs it may be, but the Carlyle’s discretion has also earned it the moniker “Palace of Secrets”.
Now an esteemed Rosewood Hotel, The Carlyle is as popular as it has ever been. Standing tall over Central Park, its instantly-recognizable emerald-tiled tower is one of the most handsome on the New York skyline. Uncertain its beginnings may have been, yet there is no other hotel in New York City with the combined history and decadence of the Carlyle.
