Hotel McAlpin

When the Hotel McAlpin opened in 1912 at the corner of Broadway and 34th Street, it claimed the title of the largest hotel in the world. Its massive twenty-five-story frame held fifteen hundred guest rooms and required a staff of fifteen hundred people to operate. General Edwin McAlpin, a wealthy tobacco magnate, commissioned the building to dominate the emerging commercial district of Herald Square, ensuring his hotel stood as a formidable, isolated presence amidst the city skyline.