View source for City Hotel, New York

[[File:New York Broadway 1831.jpg|thumb|300px|City Hotel, 1831]]
The '''City Hotel''' (1794–1849) stood at 123 Broadway,{{r|Berger}} occupying the whole block bounded by Cedar, Temple, and Thames Streets, in today's Financial District in [[Manhattan]], New York City. It was the first functioning hotel in the United States. Until the early 1840s it was the city's principal site for prestigious social functions and concerts. Designed by [[John McComb Jr.]], it offered not only luxurious accommodations, but also such amenities as shops, a barroom, and a coffeehouse, as well as public dining and dancing. Its five stories and 137 rooms replaced the former home of [[Stephen Delancey]], built around 1700, which had become an inn.

An 1825 guide-book, first published in 1817, calls it "an immense building, 5 stories in height, [which] contains 78 rooms of various dimensions, fitted up and furnished in a tasteful, elegant and convenient manner … the proprietor of this Hotel makes it his constant study to provide the best of every thing to his visitors."{{r|"1825 guide"}} An 1828 expanded edition states:

<blockquote>City Hotel, [operated] by Chester Jennings, is the chief place of resort, and … the loftiest edifice of that kind in the city, containing more than one hundred large and small parlours and lodging-rooms, besides the City Assembly Room, chiefly used for Concerts and Balls. The rooms appropriated for private families, parlours, and dining rooms are superbly fitted up, and constantly occupied by respectable strangers. Extensive additions have recently been made to this establishment. The principal Book stores and Libraries are in the vicinity. Prices, over two days, $1.50 per day, $10 per week, $416 per year—Board ''only,'' $5.50 per week, dinner only, $3.50 per week.{{r|"1828 guide"}}</blockquote>

Upon its closing on April 30, 1849, the ''[[New York Herald]]'' wrote: "In times gone by, it was the first hotel of the country, and the great men of the country always patronized it … ". It was once owned by [[Ezra Weeks]]. In 1828 [[John Jacob Astor]] bought it. He gave it to a granddaughter, Sara Langdon, who married Francis Robert Boreen in 1834, as a dowry. In 1849–50 she replaced it with a block of stores called the Boreel Building, and in 1878–79 replaced that with an office building, also called the Boreel Building.{{r|"HERALD April 30, 1849"|"TRIB April 19, 1878"}}

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="1825 guide">{{cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t7jq3b114&view=1up&seq=58 |title=The Picture of New-York, or the Stranger's Guide to the Commercial Metropolis of the United States |place=New York |publisher=A. T. Goodrich |year=1825 |page=42}}</ref>
<ref name="1828 guide">{{cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t51g0vs4w&view=1up&seq=425 |title=The Picture of New-York, and Stranger's Guide to the Commercial Metropolis of the United States |publisher=A. T. Goodrich |place=New York |year=1828 |page=397}}</ref>
<ref name=Archaeological>{{cite report |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/arch_reports/1754.pdf |website=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission |title=Phase IA Archaeological Documentary Study, Thames Street Pedestrian Plaza |first1=Julie Abell |last1=Horn |first2=Cece |last2=Saunders |date=June 2017 |publisher=Historical Perspectives, Inc. |place=Westport, CT |pages=7–8}}</ref>
<ref name=Berger>{{cite book |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hotel_Dreams/HvZnq3rWbbgC?hl=en&kptab=publisherseries&gbpv=1 |title=Hotel Dreams |year=2011 |first=Molly W. |last=Berger |location=Baltimore |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |page=15 |isbn=978-0-8018-9987-4}}</ref>
<ref name=Gotham>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195140491/page/340 |title=Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 |author1-first=Edwin G. |author1-last=Burrows |author2-first=Mike |author2-last=Wallace |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=New York |year=1999 |chapter=Queen of Commerce, Jack of All Trades |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195140491/page/340 340] |isbn=0-19-514049-4 |url-access=registration}}</ref>
<ref name="HERALD April 30, 1849">{{cite news |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1849-04-30/ed-1/seq-2/ |newspaper=New York Herald |date=April 30, 1849 |page=2, column 4 |title=City Intelligence: Closing of the City Hotel}}</ref>
<ref name=Jackson>{{cite book |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Encyclopedia_of_New_York_City/lF_uDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=hotels |title=The Encyclopedia of New York City |edition=second |year=2010 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |first=Kenneth T. |last=Jackson |page=617 (entry:hotels) |isbn=978-0300114652}}</ref>
<ref name=Landau>{{cite nysky|page=16}}</ref>
<ref name=Sandoval>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300106169/mode/1up |title=Hotel: An American History |year=2007 |first=A. K. |last=Sandoval-Strausz |isbn=978-0-30010616-9 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |url-access=registration}}</ref>
<ref name="TRIB April 19, 1878">{{cite news |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1878-04-19/ed-1/seq-8/ |newspaper=New-York Tribune |date=April 19, 1878 |page=8, column 1 |title=A New Broadway Building}}</ref>
}}


[[Category:Hotels and Hospitality]]
[[Category:John McComb Jr.]]
[[Category:Broadway (Manhattan)]]
[[Category:Manhattan]]
[[Category:New York (state)]]
[[Category:1849 disestablishments in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Hotels]]
[[Category:Foote Family]]
[[Category:Foote Family Papers]]