Concourse Plaza Hotel
Historic site · Concourse, New York
A building at the Grand Concourse and East 161st Street, in the Concourse neighborhood. Ground was broken in 1922 and it opened on October 22, 1923, as a 12-story luxury hotel, with a grand ballroom, four banquet halls, two meeting and dinner rooms, two kitchens — one banquet, one kosher — and a rifle range in the sub-basement.
History
Al Smith said at the opening: "After seeing this new structure, I am convinced that anything can go in the Bronx."
Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Frank Gifford were among its guests, and Horace Clarke, the last Yankees player to live there, did so in the early 1970s. It hosted presidential campaign stops, including a John F. Kennedy event on November 5, 1960, where a sign read "The home of the knishes thinks Jack is delicious." Tito Puente's band played New Year's Eve dances there.
The New York City government purchased the building in 1974 and converted it to senior citizens' housing, its current use. It appeared in the films Marty (1955), The Catered Affair (1957) and Gloria (1980).
Visit
Grand Concourse and East 161st Street, Bronx, NY
Photo "Postcard view of the Concourse Plaza Hotel": Lumitone Photoprint, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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