1935 Hotel Taft Pictorial Tourist Map of Manhattan, New York City

This is a c. 1935 Hotel Taft pictorial tourist map of Manhattan, New York City. Created to promote the Hotel Taft and complete with a detachable mail-in reservation card, the map highlights sites around Manhattan that might interest visitors during their stay.

A Closer Look

The Hotel Taft is ambitiously presented as the most prominent building in Manhattan from 59th Street to Battery Park. Sites of interest to visitors, including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Flatiron, Grand Central Station, Metropolitan Tower, Woolworth Building, Washington Square, Central Park, and Penn Station, are also illustrated. Transport to and from Manhattan is highlighted, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Queensboro Bridge, and the subway network.

The Hotel Taft

Opened on November 15, 1926, the 22-story building on the eastern side of Seventh Avenue at 50th Street began as the Hotel Manger. It numbered an impressive 2,250 rooms, making it the largest hotel near Times Square and the third largest in Manhattan. It was connected to the celebrated Roxy Theatre. Bing and Bing bought the Manger Hotel in 1931 and renamed it Hotel Taft after President William Howard Taft. The hotel subsequently changed hands several times and, by the late 1960s, had fallen on hard times. By 1975, it was in receivership. In the mid-1980s, the building was converted for mixed-use, with the 8th through 21st floors becoming condominiums and the other seven floors remaining a hotel.

Publication History and Census

This map was published by the Hotel Taft c. 1935. This piece does not appear in OCLC, and we note only a few instances on the private market.