Walk past the corner of 7th Avenue and 50th Street today and you’ll see the polished facade of the Michelangelo Hotel. It’s sleek. It’s "boutique." It’s very much a product of modern Midtown luxury. But if you could peel back the stone and the years, you’d find the bones of something much more chaotic, massive, and frankly, weird.
This was the Taft Hotel New York.
At its peak, it wasn't just a place to sleep; it was a 2,000-room city within a city. Most people today haven’t heard of it unless they’re obsessing over classic cinema or the dark history of Broadway. Honestly, the Taft was kind of a beast. It saw the rise of the Big Band era, the desperation of the Great Depression, and eventually, the slow decay of 1970s New York.
The Wonder Hotel that Started as a Scandal
Before it was the Taft, it opened in 1926 as the Hotel Manger. The owners wanted a "modern marble palace," and they mostly got it. We’re talking 22 stories of Spanish Renaissance architecture right in the heartbeat of the theater district.
But here’s the thing: the 1920s were messy.
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The Manger immediately ran into trouble with the feds. Why? Because even though it was a "palace," it was apparently a very busy place to buy a drink during Prohibition. Federal agents eventually padlocked parts of the building after catching bellboys and waiters acting as high-speed bootleggers. By 1931, the hotel was sold and rebranded as the Taft, named after President William Howard Taft.
It’s funny because President Taft was a massive guy, and the hotel was equally enormous. It was built for the masses—the tourists who hopped off the trains at Grand Central and wanted to be "where the action was."
Why the Taft Hotel New York Became a Movie Star
If you’ve seen The Graduate, you’ve seen the Taft. Well, sort of.
In the movie, Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) has his infamous affair with Mrs. Robinson at the Taft Hotel. He registers under the name "Mr. Gladstone," looking like a terrified kid in a suit three sizes too big for his confidence. While the movie used a mix of locations, the Taft name became synonymous with that specific brand of mid-century New York anonymity.
It was the kind of place where you could get lost. With 2,000 rooms, the staff didn't know you, and your neighbors didn't care. That anonymity made it a magnet for two very different groups: world-famous musicians and people at the end of their rope.
"Lopez Speaking" and the Grill Room
For over 20 years, the Taft was the headquarters of Vincent Lopez and his orchestra. If you were a New Yorker in the 40s or 50s, you knew the phrase "Lopez speaking." It was his signature radio sign-on from the Taft Grill.
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The hotel was a launchpad. Look at this list of names who played or hung out there:
- Artie Shaw
- Glenn Miller
- The Dorsey Brothers
- Tony Pastor
It wasn't just jazz, though. The Taft was the center of the "Shake the Maracas" craze. People would travel for miles just to compete for miniature piano lighters and a chance to dance in a room that felt like the center of the universe.
The Darker Side of the 18th Floor
You can’t talk about a 2,000-room hotel in the middle of Manhattan without talking about the tragedy that comes with that much volume. The Taft Hotel New York had a bit of a "suicide magnet" reputation in the 1930s.
In June 1933, a phone operator named Catherine Mary Dietz called the Daily Mirror city desk. She told the staffer she had taken 36 poison tablets and was about to jump from the 18th floor. She did it a moment later. That same year, an artist named Charles Schomburg jumped from the 14th floor, landing on the roof of the adjoining Roxy Theater.
The most famous—and saddest—was probably Philip Loeb in 1955. He was a huge TV star on The Goldbergs but got blacklisted during the Red Scare. He checked into the Taft, took an overdose of sleeping pills, and never checked out.
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What’s Left of the Taft Today?
The Taft didn't go bankrupt and vanish; it just sort of... evolved. By the late 70s, Midtown was getting gritty. The hotel was falling apart. Huge 2,000-room hotels were becoming impossible to manage.
In 1985, the hotel finally shut its doors for good. But the building is still there!
It was split up. Part of it became the Executive Plaza (luxury condominiums), and the rest was transformed into the Michelangelo Hotel. If you walk into the Michelangelo today, you’re standing in the space that used to house the Taft’s massive lobby, but it’s been scaled down to a boutique size.
Most of the original rooms were tiny. To make the Michelangelo work, they had to knock down walls and combine three or four of the old Taft rooms to make one modern suite. That tells you everything you need to know about how travel has changed. We used to want a tiny box in the middle of the noise; now we want a "retreat" from it.
Actionable Tips for History Buffs
If you want to experience the Taft Hotel New York legacy today, don’t just book a room and stay inside.
- Visit the Michelangelo Lobby: Look at the scale. Even though it's "boutique" now, you can still feel the "Grand Hotel" bones of the 1920s Spanish Renaissance style.
- The 7th Avenue View: Stand on the corner of 50th and 7th. Look up. The brickwork and the upper-floor ornamentation are the same ones that Vincent Lopez saw every night for 20 years.
- Check the Archives: If you’re a real nerd, the New York Public Library has old menus and brochures from the Taft Grill. The prices will make you want to cry—rooms used to go for $7 a night.
The Taft was a place of high notes and low bottoms. It’s a reminder that New York doesn't really destroy its history; it just puts a fresh coat of Italian marble over it and changes the name on the door.
Next Step: You can look up the original floor plans of the 1926 Manger Hotel at the Library of Congress digital archives to see how they fit 2,000 rooms into a single city block.