Plaza Hotel

On the south side of the Plaza (between 57th and 58th Streets) once stood the French Renaissance chateau of William H. Vanderbilt, designed by William Morris Hunt; rising behind its gated front court, it was the grandest of the Fifth Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age.

The Plaza is the second hotel of that name on the site. The French Renaissance chateau-style building was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh and opened to the public in October 1907.

The Plaza was accorded landmark status by New York City's Landmark Commission in 1969 and is the only New York City hotel to be designated as a National Historic Landmark. In the 1950s it was the setting for Kay Thomspson's series of Eloise books, Eartha Kitt and Peggy Lee played the Persian Room, unaccompanied ladies were not permitted in the Oak Room bar and the Palm Court was favored for luncheons and teas.

Donald Trump bought the Plaza for $407.5 million in 1988. Trump commented on his purchase in a full-page open letter he had published in The New York Times: "I haven't purchased a building, I have purchased a masterpiece -- the Mona Lisa. For the first time in my life, I have knowingly made a deal that was not economic -- for I can never justify the price I paid, no matter how successful the Plaza becomes." Trump sold it for $325 million in 1995 to a partnership between Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. They sold it in 2004 for $675 million to Elad Properties, an Israeli development group. The Plaza closed on April 30, 2005, to undergo extensive renovation, converting all but about 150 of the rooms into condominiums and retail stores.