The Roosevelt Hotel, a New York City landmark for over a century, once again faces an uncertain future. Last month, city officials announced plans to stop using it as a migrant shelter and processing center beginning this summer.
Opened in 1924 to cater to passengers using the nearby Grand Central Terminal, the iconic hotel has weathered Prohibition, the Great Depression, a World War and 9/11.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, however, forced the hotel to close its doors to guests due to financial losses before its short-lived reincarnation in 2023 as a hub for undocumented migrants flooding the city.
Through it all, the Roosevelt, affectionately known as the “Grand Dame of Madison Avenue,” became a favorite movie backdrop featured in countless Hollywood classics and TV shows.
While its fate remains in question, the Roosevelt’s past, captured in photographs and movies, serves as a microcosm of New York City and American history. Here are seven images that capture key moments in the hotel’s history.
1924: Named after President Theodore Roosevelt, the hotel opened just four years after the start of Prohibition, the 13-year national ban on alcohol in the United States. While Prohibition forced some city hotels to close, the area around Grand Central flourished in the postwar years, attracting commercial developers, including those behind the Roosevelt. While not among New York’s most opulent hotels, the four-star property stood as a towering presence in Midtown Manhattan, rising 19 stories into the skyline. Because of Prohibition, the Roosevelt broke with tradition and featured storefronts instead of lounges and bars on its street level. It was also among the first hotels in the world to offer pet service, child care and an in-house doctor.
1929: With alcohol off the menu, the Roosevelt became a magnet for tourists and music lovers. At the height of Prohibition, famed bandleader Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians performed their first live show at the hotel’s Roosevelt Grill, continuing to entertain fans for the next three decades. Their rendition of “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish song about old friendships and loves, became a New Year’s Eve tradition. Variety magazine later hailed Lombardo as the “only Canadian ever to create an American tradition,” cementing his legacy at the Roosevelt.
1943: Hotel magnate Conrad Hilton bought the Roosevelt, along with The Plaza hotel, calling the Roosevelt “a fine hotel with grand spaces,” and took up residence in its Presidential Suite. The acquisition established Hilton as the first coast-to-coast American hotel chain. Four years later, the Roosevelt made history again when it became the first to offer a television set in every room. But Hilton’s ownership ended in 1956 when his company was forced to sell the property as part of an antitrust lawsuit brought by the government.
1948: The Roosevelt became a political hub in the mid-20th century, serving as the campaign headquarters for Republican presidential nominee Thomas Dewey in 1944 and 1948. Dewey lost both elections and conceded them from the hotel. In the years that followed, the hotel hosted other high-profile political events.
1970s-2010s: Starting in the 1970s, the Roosevelt, with its neoclassical facade and old- world interior, became a favorite filming location for Hollywood studios. Among the more than a dozen movies filmed there: “The French Connection” (1971), “Wall Street” (1987), “Presumed Innocent” (1990) and “Maid in Manhattan” (2002). Several TV shows have also been filmed there, among them: “Mad Men” and “Law & Order.”
1979: The hotel changed owners multiple times before Pakistan International Airlines, with backing from Saudi Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud, took over its management from a New York real estate family. The agreement came with the option to buy the hotel for $36.5 million after 20 years — a deal the airline finalized in 2000. Considered a national asset by the Pakistan government, the Roosevelt became the preferred lodging place for visiting Pakistani prime ministers and other dignitaries to New York. In the late 1990s, the hotel hosted a live performance in the Grand Ballroom by Junoon, Pakistan’s biggest rock band.
2020-2023: In recent decades, the Roosevelt has struggled financially. In 2020, it closed its doors to guests, citing the “unprecedented environment” stemming from the pandemic. It received a fresh start when New York City signed a three-year, $220 million lease in 2023 to use it as a migrant shelter and processing center. But the lease proved a mere Band-Aid for the struggling hotel. In February 2024, Mayor Eric Adams announced the city was canceling the lease, marking the end of an era in New York history.
