HERALD SQUARE HOTEL

Amidst the grime warehouses, freight forwarders and Cargo Service companies is the magnificent Herald Square Hotel. This hotel is one of several built at the turn of the 20th century in the midtown area to take advantage of proximity to the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

 
The first thing you see, as you enter this hotel, is the statue of WINGED LIFE which hovers protectively above the doorway on West 31st Street. The hotel says that “It seductively appeals to the artist, lover and child in each of us and beckons one and all to enter his temple and peruse the art, inhale the heady aroma of history and dance with the memories of all the joy that he has created within.”


What makes this hotel different from the rest of the area hotels is that it was the home of Life magazine. Once in the hotel you see reproductions of the art which appeared on the covers of the magazine including those of Charles Gibson.


One of the infamous tenants of the hotel was Ida Wood who moved in about 1910. Her husband, Benjamin, served three terms in Congress and was owner of the New York Daily News. When Benjamin died in 1900, Ida, her sister and daughter moved into suites 551 and 552 at the hotel. Ida was worried about the future of the newspaper which she sold for $340,000, converted it to cash which she hid in her suite. The women became recluses opening the door only to receive food deliveries. Ida paid her hotel bills in cash. When Ida’s sister died in 1928 they discovered that each sister has $175,000 worth of stock in Union Pacific. Ida died in 1932 leaving an estate of more that $1 million.