59 West 44th Street, Google Maps

Trip Advisor review of Algonquin Hotel

Reservations

Make reservations for Algonquin Hotel at Hotels.com

Description

The Algonquin, the hotel where literary figures of the 1920s held court at the Round Table, is becoming a Marriott.

The storied landmark will become another link in the giant hotel chain in September 2010 as the the first New York City property in the Marriott Autograph Collection.

The 174-room hotel, which opened in 1902, was designated as a city landmark three years ago for its history as a gathering place for literary notables, including Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker and Harold Ross.

What to expect: Designated a Historic Hotel of America by the National Trust of Historic Preservation, the Algonquin continues to attract writers, artists, musicians, and media figures as it did during Prohibition. In that era, a group of regulars, drawn by free popovers and celery, formed the now-legendary Algonquin Round Table to gossip and trade barbs. The ambience, monitored in the Edwardian-decor lobby by Matilda, the resident Birman cat, seems undisturbed from that era.

Amenity highlights: The Oak Room, where singers such as Harry Connick Jr., Diana Krall, Andrea Marcovicci, and Michael Feinstein first attained stardom, is a celebrated New York cabaret. The Blue Bar lights oil lamps for patrons in blue-leather booths. Although the Edwardian Lobby Lounge evokes an earlier era, complimentary laptop computers are available on request, and complimentary wireless Internet access is available in hotel public spaces.

Insider tip: On the same block as the hotel, the New York Yacht Club, a whimsical creation dating from 1900, displays carved stone sterns of 16th-century Dutch galleons in its bay windows.