The fate of the Henry Hudson Hotel

My parents are here for a few stays. Mom decided she needed a dose of NYC culture, and Dad agreeably accompanies her. Not that there is any choice, for her or for him.
Thus far they have visited the Onassis Cultural Center for the “Worshipping Women” Exhibit, MOMA to get confused, and the Met for Islamic tiles and Dutch landscapes. My mother is researching the lineage of the spiral design and has traced it as far back as the Bronze Age. This pleases her enormously.


Dad wants to know about the Henry Hudson Hotel. The NYC he remembers is circa 1944, when several floors of the Henry Hudson Hotel were commandeered by Naval Intelligence, and he lived there for a few months learning codes. The Henry Hudson Hotel was built in 1929 as the Women’s Association Clubhouse, with 1250 rooms and a swimming pool. A quick Google search tells me that back in 1997 Ian Schrager bought the building with plans to renovate it and turn it into a$75/night hotel. A lovely idea, but did that happen? The Internet trail turns chilly after one fascinating article about Schrager’s project and Anne Morgan’s role in the establishment of the Women’s Association.

An Internet site called EveryBlockNYC, tells me that in 2008 three Applications for alterations were denied at 353 West 57th. Having been denied a variance by our own misguided Zoning Board (for a barn, no less) I can only imagine the bureaucratic posturing and the gnashing of teeth, the lamentations and recriminations. Or maybe it’s not quite like that on the West Side.
The flat Netherlandish landscape may be fine, but this is all Dad wants to see. A visit is in order.
You probably would not expect the patron saint of hotel keepers to have much in common with Oedipus. But such is the sad case. He was out hunting when the stag he pursued predicted Julian would kill his parents. Julian promptly moved to Galicia and married a wealthy older woman. Twenty years later his loving parents found out where he had decamped to and popped in for a surprise visit. Julian's wife graciously gave the older couple her and Julian's bed. When Julian came home (from hunting, of course) and saw them sleeping there, he assumed it was his wife with another man and killed them both. And there is much more. But most likely none of it is true.