Then, as for decades, the hotel occupied a vibrant, iconic place in the cultural life of New York's Greenwich Village. From its opening in 1887, the Albert was home, hotel and hang-out for generations of artists, activists, writers, poets and musicians. Mark Twain lectured at the Albert. Hart Crane wrote his famous poem, The Bridge, in its rooms. Thomas Wolfe styled his fictional Hotel Leopold on the Albert.
Anais Nin was a guest. Jackson Pollack visited, as did Andy Warhol. Rocky Graziano ate steak in its French restaurant. The Mamas & The Papas wrote California Dreamin' in the Albert. The list is endless. This website celebrates the history of a storied institution whose influence ran far beyond Greenwich Village. The Albert mirrors the arc of New York's fortunes, from the city's ascendancy in the late 19th century to its nadir in the mid-1970s.
Today, the Albert is a flourishing cooperative of apartments. The story continues. But first we invite you to explore our remarkable backstory.
Anais Nin was a guest. Jackson Pollack visited, as did Andy Warhol. Rocky Graziano ate steak in its French restaurant. The Mamas & The Papas wrote California Dreamin' in the Albert. The list is endless. This website celebrates the history of a storied institution whose influence ran far beyond Greenwich Village. The Albert mirrors the arc of New York's fortunes, from the city's ascendancy in the late 19th century to its nadir in the mid-1970s.
Today, the Albert is a flourishing cooperative of apartments. The story continues. But first we invite you to explore our remarkable backstory.
Services
Joseph Brody, a colorful European refugee-some say French, others Czech-took over the hotel's French restaurant on the corner of University Place and East 11th St. in 1946.
A self-declared "genius-in-residence, " he turned it into an American restaurant under the slogan, "All the steak you can eat for $2.35," though the name remained unchanged and the servers wore berets.
Brody was also a pioneer among New York restaurateurs in the 1950s in offering a sidewalk cafe-a place; it was said, for "bearded poets to sip wine."
A self-declared "genius-in-residence, " he turned it into an American restaurant under the slogan, "All the steak you can eat for $2.35," though the name remained unchanged and the servers wore berets.
Brody was also a pioneer among New York restaurateurs in the 1950s in offering a sidewalk cafe-a place; it was said, for "bearded poets to sip wine."
New York home to rock's greatest, the best and the worst of all worlds lie under its roof.
The 1960s ushered in the Hotel Albert's last hurrah.
It was a trip.
No doubt there was sex and drugs.
Certainly there was rock'n'roll.
The hotel provided a gritty, grimy, grungy home away from home for musicians-and a basement in which to jam and rehearse "among the pools of water and cockroaches."
The Hotel Albert's distinction, journalist Lillian Roxon, 'the mother of rock, ' wrote, "is not that it has housed some of the most influential rock personalities of our time (after all, so has Holiday Inn), but that it has affected them so deeply (in a way no impersonal Holiday Inn could ever hope to) that American popular music would probably never have been what it is today without it."
The 1960s ushered in the Hotel Albert's last hurrah.
It was a trip.
No doubt there was sex and drugs.
Certainly there was rock'n'roll.
The hotel provided a gritty, grimy, grungy home away from home for musicians-and a basement in which to jam and rehearse "among the pools of water and cockroaches."
The Hotel Albert's distinction, journalist Lillian Roxon, 'the mother of rock, ' wrote, "is not that it has housed some of the most influential rock personalities of our time (after all, so has Holiday Inn), but that it has affected them so deeply (in a way no impersonal Holiday Inn could ever hope to) that American popular music would probably never have been what it is today without it."
By the mid-1970s, the Hotel Albert, like much of New York, had fallen on hard times.
The Elghanayans, a family of real-estate developers, bought it to convert into apartments, a move welcomed by local residents.
What had become 500 seedy residential hotel rooms is now a thriving complex of 190 cooperative apartments.
The historic facades of the buildings have been retained and we continue to maintain the Albert in the spirit of its past splendor befitting its history.
We are fortunate to have Anthony W. Robins, an authority on New York landmarks, a historian of the Albert to connect us to the buildings' past.
The Elghanayans, a family of real-estate developers, bought it to convert into apartments, a move welcomed by local residents.
What had become 500 seedy residential hotel rooms is now a thriving complex of 190 cooperative apartments.
The historic facades of the buildings have been retained and we continue to maintain the Albert in the spirit of its past splendor befitting its history.
We are fortunate to have Anthony W. Robins, an authority on New York landmarks, a historian of the Albert to connect us to the buildings' past.
I just found this website - and I'm so glad!
I owned an apt. in the building from 2000-2007.
While I lived there one of the staff told me that Charlie Chaplin lived there for a while and that sometimes you could see his ghost in the back stairway.
Thought this might be an interesting tidbit.
I lived at the Hotel Albert in 1968 after finishing college in Chicago.
I worked as a bartender at the Red Witch on 4th street and 6th Avenue, near the Waverly Theatre.
My room was very small.
It was kind of seedy.
I owned an apt. in the building from 2000-2007.
While I lived there one of the staff told me that Charlie Chaplin lived there for a while and that sometimes you could see his ghost in the back stairway.
Thought this might be an interesting tidbit.
I lived at the Hotel Albert in 1968 after finishing college in Chicago.
I worked as a bartender at the Red Witch on 4th street and 6th Avenue, near the Waverly Theatre.
My room was very small.
It was kind of seedy.
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