The Plaza Hotel is located near Central Park in New York. The architecture of the building is French Renaissance/Chateau, and I find it quite beautiful. I love architecture, and I just never realized that I did until I got older. The designer of the building was Henry Janeway Hardenbergh in 1907, but there was a later addition added in 1919, designed by Warren and Wetmore. The building is 21 stories, which is not a lot when you consider some modern buildings, but still quite a bit for a hotel. The interior features a number of bars and dining areas, a ballroom, suites and condominiums, and amazing architecture and interior design. The hotel is now a historical landmark.

Conrad Hilton bought the hotel after the Great Depression, spending six million dollars on renovations. He installed air conditioning equipment, which was a huge deal. There were several long term residents in the hotel, and they were not really excited about Hilton taking over the hotel, but they did grow to appreciate the renovations. After Hilton, the hotel was owned by Sonnabend, and then by Westin. After Westin, the hotel found itself with another notorious owner, Donald Trump. Trump had borrowed heavily to purchase and renovate the hotel, and eventually the hotel wound up as part of a bankruptcy package.

This book also mentioned several important guests. The first guest to ever sign the register was Alfred G. Vanderbilt. George Jay Gould, Harry Frank Guggenheim, Russian Princess Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Kay Thompson (the creator of Eloise) all stayed there. The social scene was hopping, and several famous people and wealthy elites came to parties and dinners in the hotel. In fact, the Beatles even stayed there. Several weddings were held here, including Donald Trump and Marla Maples, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and various receptions.

The hotel has been featured in books and movies. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the hotel in The Great Gatsby, and Eloise was based out of the Plaza. Eloise generated a lot of revenue in the form of post cards and guests coming who were fans of the book. In The Sopranos, Carmella and Meadow have tea at the Plaza under the portrait of Eloise. The Plaza was also featured in Home Alone 2, Sleepless In Seattle, and Crocodile Dundee.

This book was very well researched. I loved learning about the history of the hotel, the owners, and the stories during the construction. Of course, I really loved reading about all of the notable people that stayed in the hotel. I have a (not so hidden) interest in celebrity gossip, which this book did have some of, and also just learning about people whose names I have read in other historical nonfiction books (Vanderbilts and Goulds and Fitzgeralds). This was a pretty good book, and I cannot believe it took me so long to get to it, but I am slowly getting all the books I have bought on Audible listened to.