St. Cloud Hotel Annex on West 41st Street, New York City

The late 19th century building at 143 West 41st Street forms part of the Knickerbocker Hotel and is connected to it at the rear. It is known as the St. Cloud Hotel Annex.

The old St. Cloud Hotel opened in 1868 on the southeast corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, on the current site of Knickerbocker Hotel. In 1892, John Jacob Astor IV took over the lease of the St. Cloud Hotel.

The vacant plot in the rear, at 143 West 41st Street, was part of the property. In 1893, Astor contracted Philip C. Brown to design an annex to the St. Cloud Hotel at 143 West 41st Street. It was completed in 1894 and it was internally connected to the main hotel.

This Annex is a narrow eight-story building with a Romanesque Revival façade and Beaux-Arts ornament faced in buff-colored brick and terra cotta. The ground floor has changed over the years. The three-bay second story is crowned by a classical cornice that serves as a sill for a wide brick arch with terra-cotta trim that encloses a relieving arch framing the fourth and fifth stories. Two corner brackets at the sixth story, which is two bays wide, serve as bases for raised pilasters that frame the sixth, seventh, and eighth stories. The pilasters have heavy modillions that support a bracketed cornice. The seventh and eighth story are composed of three narrow windows. All the windows above the second story are the original wood one-over-one sash.

In 1897, the Knickerbocker Whist Club, founded in 1893, moved to the St. Cloud Hotel Annex and, in 1898, women were allowed to join the Club. The Republican Party in the City of New-York also leased rooms in the Annex.

In 1902, the old St. Cloud Hotel was demolished to make room for a new hotel, the Knickerbocker Hotel, completed in 1906. The Annex remained part of the hotel and its ground floor was used as a service entrance to the Knickerbocker Hotel. At the time the attic was was constructed, with two copper-clad dormers, and two griffins on pedestals were added to the top.

By 1921, the Knickerbocker Hotel was transformed into an office building and the same happened to the Annex.