The Drake Hotel, New York

The Drake Hotel was a hotel which was located at Park Avenue and 56th Street, New York.

The Drake hotel was built in 1926 by the real estate organization of Bing and Bing. It was a 21 floor complex with 495 rooms. "It boasted innovations such as automatic refrigeration as well as spacious, luxurious rooms and suites." [http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2006_4th/Dec06_Turkel21.html Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 21] hotel-online.com]

Bing and Bing owned and operated the hotel for more than 35 years. "In the early 1960s, entrepreneur William Zeckendorf acquired the hotel, added 180 guest rooms and opened New York’s first discotheque, known as Shepheard’s." Fauchon chocolates was located on the ground floor.

In 1965, the Tisch brothers acquired the Drake. The hotel was acquired in the early 1980s by the Swissotel company of Zurich, which undertook a $52 million room-by-room renovation of the building. Renovations were completed in 1991.

Silent film star Lillian Gish lived at the hotel from 1946-1949. Other notable guests included Frank Sinatra, Muhammed Ali, Judy Garland, and Glenn Gould; restauranteur Toots Shor lived there in his final years. Songwriter Jerome Kern collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the Drake on November 5, 1945.

In the 1960s and 1970s the Drake Hotel was the preferred accommodation in New York for a number of touring rock bands, such as Led Zeppelin and The Who. During their stay there in 1973, Led Zeppelin had $180,000 stolen from a safe deposit box at the hotel. The money was never recovered and the identity of the thief or thieves has never been discovered. The band later sued the Drake Hotel for the theft.

In 2006 the hotel was sold for $440 million to developer Harry Macklowe. It was as demolished in 2007. The site remains undeveloped (September 2008).

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