Hotel Belleclaire, Broadway, West 77th Street NYC

The Hotel Belleclaire is located at 2175 Broadway, on the southwest corner of West 77th Street, Upper West Side of Manhattan. The hotel opened in 1903 and was designated a New York City landmark in 1987. Today, it is managed by the Triumph Hotels.

The Upper West Side was largely undeveloped until the 1880s, when it was unpaved. Developers began erecting large apartment buildings in the area by the late 19th century. The city's first subway line opened in 1904 with a station at Broadway and 79th Street. The Hotel Belleclaire was constructed in 1901-1903 and was one of several apartment hotels built along Broadway on the Upper West Side.

The Belleclaire was developed by Albert Saxe as an apartment hotel. It was one of the first large buildings designed by the Hungarian-born architect Emery Roth (1871−1948), who later designed NYC landmarks Ritz Tower, the El Dorado and the San Remo.

The ten-story high hotel incorporates elements of the Art Nouveau and Secession styles. Its façade is largely made of red brick with ornamentation made of limestone, metal, and terracotta. The limestone base is two stories high and contains a main entrance on Broadway. The exterior includes a curved corner and a two-story mansard roof with arches.

The Hotel Belleclaire formally opened on January 12, 1903, and Milton Roblee was the proprietor. It was luxuriously furnished with original decorative effects in several of the public rooms. Although primarily designed for permanent residence, the Belleclaire also accommodated transient guests. The ground floor was devoted entirely to the hotel business, and had large and commodious offices, and a beautiful promenade hall extending the entire length, off from which you may enter the Louis XV ladies' dining room, the Italian Renaissance palm room, the Flemish cafe, the Mission library and the Moorish private dining room. Other space is devoted to flowers, cigars, news, telephone and telegraph offices, etc. The upper floors were divided into apartments with one to three rooms each. These apartments have been rearranged over the years into 254 guestrooms.

The hotel had several operators during its first two decades. Robert D. Blackman was the manager about 1920. The ground floor rooms were replaced by shops in the 1920s. In June 1940, Samuel L. Lebis, who had operated the Belleclaire under lease for the last 12 years, bought the property from the Mutual Life Insurance Company. At the time the hotel contained 320 rooms and eight stores.

In the following years, the hotel lost its charm and several modifications were made in the mid-20th century. Shimmie Horn began operating the hotel in 1999 and renovated it into a boutique hotel. Since 2014, the hotel is operated by Triumph Hotels.