Grand Hotel (New York City)

The Grand Hotel stands at the corner of Broadway and West Thirty-first Street as a preserved relic of a time when this intersection was the center of New York City luxury. When it opened in eighteen sixty-eight, it was commissioned by Elias Smith Higgins, a man who made his fortune manufacturing carpets and saw an opportunity to capitalize on the city's northward expansion. Architect Henry Engelbert designed the six-story structure in the French Second Empire style, complete with a dramatic mansard roof and a white marble facade that served as a visual statement of elegance for the city's wealthy elite.