Best-of Guides New York

New York's Most Historic Hotels

There are many great hotels in New York, but only a few important hotels. These are the places that could never exist anywhere else and if they didn’t exist here, the city would not be the same. Whether it’s the people who have stayed there or the history of the building, these hotels are as dynamic and vibrant as the city itself. Perhaps no other hotel has a more storied, even tawdry, history than The Hotel Chelsea. Arthur Miller moved here after his divorce from Marilyn Monroe. Sid Vicious murdered Nancy Spungen here. And everyone—from Bob Dylan to Andy Warhol to Patti Smith—floated in and out of these hallowed halls. After being shuttered as a hotel in 2011, the building served as an artist-like colony to some of downtown’s most colorful characters. In 2011, the hotelier Sean MacPhearson purchased the 155-room building, which was sorely in need of repair, and spent a decade renovating it. Today there is a stylish glint to the property but if these walls could talk, there would be a thousand stories to tell. From starring as Eloise’s home in the beloved children’s books series to hosting Truman Capote’s infamous Black and White Ball in 1966, The Plaza has always been part of the fabric of the city. As someone once said, “Nothing unimportant ever happens at the Plaza.” And with a prestigious address at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, it’s quite literally in the center of Manhattan. Since 1907, this 282-room grande dame, complete with crystal chandeliers, potted palms and acres of marble, has attracted kings, presidents and celebrities, as well as movie directors—the hotel has made a cameo in films like North by Northwest, Funny Girl and Sleepless in Seattle, to name a few. Originally built in 1912 as a bank, Nine Orchard is now a 122-room hotel in the city’s grooviest neighborhood. When renovating this 12-story Beaux Arts tower, the design team paid careful attention to the historic bones, including the original vaulted bank ceiling in the Swan Room, the hotel’s cocktail lounge. The rooftop features a beautiful indoor-outdoor solarium with landscaping and wraparound views of the Manhattan skyline. For more historic hotels, see below.

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Updated on 16 January 2025

The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel

The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel
Upper East Side

If it’s not the most famous hotel in all of New York, it’s certainly the most famous hotel on the Upper East Side. The Carlyle Hotel is pure, undiluted essence of old-world Manhattan sophistication, and has been since the days when it was JFK’s “New York White House.” It’s played host to too many famous charachters to list; it’s said that Princess Diana, Michael Jackson, and Steve Jobs once shared an elevator here. When you’ve got that reputation for timeless elegance and faultless professionalism, you don’t worry about innovating — you can leave novelty to the downtown boutiques and focus on classic hospitality.

The Hotel Chelsea

The Hotel Chelsea
Chelsea

There was never any question the legendary Hotel Chelsea would eventually face a significant update; it’s good for the Chelsea, and for New York, that it fell to Sean MacPherson to do it, along with partners Ira Drukier and Richard Born. MacPherson’s other hotels around town — the Marlton, the Bowery, the Maritime and more — help usher the romance of old New York into the modern era in a way that’s nostalgic but also authentic. And in the Chelsea, in particular, there’s much to be nostalgic about.

The New York EDITION

The New York EDITION
Gramercy Park

Long departed from the hotel group that once went by his name, Ian Schrager has moved on to a relationship with Marriott International — a partnership whose fruits, the Edition hotels, are a little more upscale than the earlier Schrager offerings, and a lot more stylish than the typical Marriott fare. And the latest addition to the Edition family is something of a homecoming, opening on Madison Square Park, in the old Metropolitan Life Tower, otherwise known as That Great Big Clock Tower in the Flatiron District.

Nine Orchard

Nine Orchard
Lower East Side

Whether or not the phrase Dimes Square means anything to you, you’ll appreciate the mini-neighborhood Nine Orchard calls home. Here, at the east end of Canal Street, where the Lower East Side meets Chinatown, there’s a buzz that’s reminiscent of some of Downtown’s earlier golden ages — and, in Nine Orchard itself, there’s a hotel with enough character and personality to become a proper neighborhood institution.

The Plaza

The Plaza
Midtown

The word “iconic” gets thrown around a fair bit, but if there’s any hotel in New York City that truly deserves, the label, this is it. The Plaza stands in one of the city’s most prominent locations, at the southeast corner of Central Park, and its French Renaissance style is immediately recognizable. Its role as the setting for the famous 1955 children’s book Eloise is just one of its many pop-culture connections. Behind the scenes much has changed since its 1907 opening, but its Beaux-Arts atmosphere remains as ornate as ever — and under the steady hand of the Fairmont hotel group, the Plaza is among New York’s finest traditional luxury hotels.

Hero Image: The Plaza