Martha Washington Hotel

Coordinates: 40°44′42″N 73°59′5″W / 40.745°N 73.98472°W / 40.745; -73.98472

The entrance and street-level facade of Hotel Thirty Thirty in 2011

The Martha Washington Hotel was a hotel at 30 East 30th Street between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue South in the Rose Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It opened on March 2, 1903 as the first hotel exclusively for women, and originally had 416 rooms. As of 2003, the building is Hotel Thirty Thirty.

Notable residents

The hotel was the chosen residence of poet Sara Teasdale on her New York visits from early 1913 onwards. Even after her marriage to Ernst Filsinger in December 1914, Teasdale often chose to stay at the Hotel.^[1]

The hotel has a connection with actress Veronica Lake: during the 1940s, Lake was regarded as one of Hollywood's most bankable actresses; however, by 1952, she was unable to continue working as an actress because of her difficult reputation - Raymond Chandler referred to her as "Moronica Lake." After divorcing her husband, she drifted between cheap hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. A reporter found her working as a barmaid at the all-women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan. At first, Lake claimed that she was a guest at the hotel and covering for a friend. Soon afterward, she admitted that she was employed at the bar. The reporter's widely distributed story led to some television and stage appearances.

In popular culture

• The hotel is mentionend in Sheridan Hay's novel The Secret of Lost Things. The female protagonist, who works in a bookstore which is inspired by The Strand, lives there for a while.
• The hotel is featured in the movie Valley of the Dolls. Anne Welles stayed there after arriving in New York for the first time.

References

Notes

1. ^ Drake, W.D., Sara Teasdale: Woman and Poet 1979

External links

• Hotel Thirty Thirty official website
• Picture of an old advertising sign for the hotel