Marlton House

40°43′57″N 73°59′49″W / 40.732627°N 73.996839°W / 40.732627; -73.996839

Marlton House, or Hotel Marlton is located at 5 West 8th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is notable for having housed many famous artistic figures, especially during the peak of the area's bohemian scene.

History

The Marlton Hotel was built in 1900 and, for much of its existence, served as a single room occupancy (SRO) hotel for mostly transient guests. However, many guests stayed for months or years at a time. Because of its location in the Village's cultural community as well as its relative affordability, the Marlton Hotel became popular amongst struggling actors, poets and artists looking for work in the city.

In 1987, The New School leased the building as a dormitory, housing primarily sophomore, junior and senior students enrolled at Parsons The New School for Design, Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts, Mannes College of Music, and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. In 2012, it was bought and renovated by hotelier Sean MacPherson.

In 2012, BD Hotels in partnership with Sean McPherson purchased the Marlton House with the intention of restoring the historic property and operating it as a mid-range boutique in the spirit of its original beatnik brand. Richard Born, a principal of BD Hotels says the hotel will have a bar and restaurant component and will not be "terribly pricey".^[1] The hotel reopened in September 2013.

Notable guests

Writers

Jack Kerouac wrote The Subterraneans and Tristessa while living at the Marlton Hotel.
Gregory Corso
Neal Cassady
Carolyn Cassady
Daniel Everett
Delmore Schwartz
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Valerie Solanas, who shot Andy Warhol (memorialized in the film I Shot Andy Warhol), lived in room 214

Actors

Lillian Gish lived in room 408, described by Albert Bigelow Paine in 1932 as a "tiny room" she stayed in to save money, in which she "cooked tinned things and tea using a sterno lamp" in 1913.
John Barrymore
Kay Francis
Maggie Smith
John Neville
Claire Bloom
Julie Andrews
Mickey Rourke
John Lithgow

Others

Galo Plaza, a South American politician who served as the President of Ecuador, was born at the Marlton Hotel in 1906 to his diplomat parents.
Isabel Dutaud Nagle, wife of sculptor Gaston Lachaise stayed at the Hotel Marlton when she came to visit Lachaise in New York. She was recorded there in 1915, and wrote many poems over the years on Hotel Marlton stationary.
Lenny Bruce, comedian who lived at the hotel during his trial for obscenity in 1964.
Norman Carton, Abstract Expressionist artist^[2]
Carmen McRae, American jazz singer
Ron Gorchov, American artist
Miriam Makeba
Hannah Hooper, vocalist and keyboardist in the rock band Grouplove
Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent (musician) stayed at the hotel while recording her album "Masseduction".
Joshua Lawrence, English photographer

References

^ Weiss, Lois (September 8, 2011). "Literary Hotel to Return". New York Post.
^ Archives of American Art, Norman Carton collection, page 13 of document AAA_Carton_B1_Correspondence_1957-59. Convalesced here in 1959 while recovering from a 1958 heart attack, per letter from Beatrice Perry, Director of the Gres Gallery

External links

[1] Weiss, Lois (September 8, 2011). "Literary Hotel to Return". New York Post.

[2] Archives of American Art, Norman Carton collection, page 13 of document AAA_Carton_B1_Correspondence_1957-59. Convalesced here in 1959 while recovering from a 1958 heart attack, per letter from Beatrice Perry, Director of the Gres Gallery

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