Savoy-Plaza Hotel

The original Savoy Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street opened in June 1892, more or less in answer to the neighboring Plaza Hotel opened in 1890. The original 12-story Savoy was designed by architect Ralph S. Townsend, for landowners including New York Supreme Court Justice P. Henry Dugro.[1] The old Savoy continued to compete with the Plaza in lavish surroundings and expansions into the 1920s. Its furnishings were liquidated in 1925.

Harry S. Black,[2] owner of the Plaza, bought the Savoy Hotel, consolidated the block, and demolished it to commission a newer companion to the older establishment from the architects of the Plaza.[2] The 33-story, 420-foot (130 m)[3] skyscraper hotel was designed by McKim, Mead & White, built for some $30 million,[4] and opened on October 1, 1927.

In 1958, Hilton Hotels purchased the property and opened a Trader Vic's within it on April 14, 1958. Hilton later renamed the hotel the Savoy Hilton. Hilton sold the hotel to Webb & Knapp, Inc. in May 1962, for $25 million.[4] Webb & Knapp resold the hotel to British Commercial Property Investments of Toronto later that year.[4] Hilton and the hotel's owners agreed to end the chain's management of the hotel in 1964, though the contract continued through 1967. Western International Hotels assumed management on June 2, 1964, renaming the property The Savoy Plaza, without the original hyphen.[5] Owners announced plans for the hotel's demolition on August 21, 1964 leading to a significant public outcry and protests.[4] On December 16, 1964, the owners announced that the hotel would be replaced by a 48-story office tower, designed by Edward Durell Stone to house the Eastern headquarters of General Motors.[6] The hotel remained open through the 1964 New York World's Fair, finally closing in October 1965. It was demolished in late 1965 and early 1966 and replaced with the General Motors Building, completed in 1968.[7]