History and architecture
The imposing neo-Italian Renaissance Gotham Hotel (now the Peninsula Hotel) is one of the few structures on Fifth Avenue which recalls the golden age of luxury hotels and the prominent place they occupied in the formation of the city. Erected between 1902 and 1905 by the Fifty-Fifth Street Company, a real estate development firm, it was designed by the architectural firm of Hiss & Weekes and is among the oldest of the early "skyscraper" hotels. These hotels heralded the transformation of Fifth Avenue from an exclusive residential street -- Millionaires' Row -- to a fashionable commercial thoroughfare.
Rising twenty stories, including a multi-storied rooftop addition, at the southwest corner of West 55th Street and Fifth Avenue, the boldly rendered Gotham is a stylistic counterpoint to its contemporary, the flamboyant Beaux-Arts St. Regis Hotel directly across Fifth Avenue and also skillfully complements McKim, Mead & White's University Club which adjoins the Gotham to the south.
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.