Hotel Astor, New York - Early 20th Century

Hotel Astor on Broadway, between West 44th Street and W 45th Street. Astor Theater is on the right (enlargement below). Photograph by Detroit Publishing Co., taken about 1909. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The proprietors Muschenheim brothers leased the land for William Waldorf Astor. Construction of the 11-story Hotel Astor began by April 1902. It was then in the west side of Long Acre Square, which became Times Square in April 1904. The hotel opened on September 9, 1904. The building was fully completed about 1910. It was an elaborate Beaux-Arts structure, of red brick with limestone detail and a mansard roof, with a garden on top. The hotel was demolished in 1967 to make way for the Minskoff Building.