AKA Times Square, old Hotel Gerard NYC

The Gerard Hotel is a historic hotel built in 1893-1894, at 123 West 44th Street, in New York City, adjoining the historic Belasco Theatre. The hotel was also operated as the Hotel Langwell, Langwell Hotel, Hotel 1-2-3 and now as AKA Times Square.

The plot 100 ft by 100 feet at 123-129 West 44th Street was previously occupied by the old Shaari Tephila synagogue on West Forty-fourth Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. The synagogue is now located at 250 East 79th Street. It was founded in 1845 on Wooster Street.

By 1890 Broadway from Union Square to Long Acre Square (now Times Square) had become the center of the theater district. The Gerard was built by William Rankin and Alexander Moore.

The 13-story U-shaped fireproof building was designed by George Keister in a combination of Romanesque and Northern Gothic and Renaissance elements. Keister also designed the churches, theaters and other buildings in New York City.

The hotel is a salmon colored brick and limestone building. The front facade features bowed pairs of bay windows from the third to the sixth floor and the building is topped by pointed front gables and a decorated dormer. The 100-foot long dining room was decorated in the Italian
Renaissance with features of marble and mosaics.

The Gerard Hotel opened about February 1894. William B. Gerard leased the hotel for ten years and the hotel was named after him. The Gerard had then 132 suites from two to five rooms with bath and 25
one-room bachelor's apartments. At the time, it was one of the tallest buildings in the area.

The rusticated base once featured a one-story columned portico that ran across most of the front façade. This was removed in 1917.

In November 1919, the owner William Rankin sold the Hotel Gerard to Gilber, Kramer & Banner. It was resold in February 1920 to Emmerich & Co. The hotel was leased by the Keystone Hotel Company, which also operated the Madison Square Hotel (opened in 1904). Before April 1921, the hotel was renamed Hotel Langwell.

In July 1934, the Hotel Langwell was sold by the Harlem Savings Bank to the Langwell Realty Company, Inc. The hotel was renamed "The Langwell Hotel". The Langwell Hotel restaurant operated in the ground floor. In 1950, it was taken again by foreclosure. In the 1970s it was Hotel 1-2-3.

In the 1980s the building was vacant, except the ground floor which housed stores and the restaurant known as Cafe Une-Deux-Troiz. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The hotel was renovated in 2007 and became the AKA Times Square.