Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1915 — Tates of GOTHAM and other CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Tates of GOTHAM and other CITIES

New York’s Famous Old Hoffman House to Be Razed t i NEW YORK.— The old Hoffman house, famous for nearly half a century. and one of Manhattan's leading hostelrles In the palmy days, is to go. It will follow the equally famous Fifth Avenue hotel, the Bartholdi and the

other landmarks at Twenty-third, Broadway and Fifth avenue into that bourne from which no superannuated hotel returns. With the passing of the Hoffman house, famed in song and story as well as in the hearts of the millions who have in times past made the old place their temporary home, there will be nothing left but Madison Square garden to remind the oldtimers of the days when TwentyThird street was the heart of the

Great White Way, when Martin’s, at Twenty-fifth street, was almost the northern limit of the night-life district When the original Hoffman house was built the ground cost $5,000. The plat now has been sold for $3,500,000. So much for the unearned Increment ▲long with the Hoffman house proper the purchaser bought the old Hotel Albemarle, now an annex of the Hoffman house, and on the site of the two will be erected a 16-story office building. The Immediate success of the Hoffman house In its first days led to frequent additions, so that U P to a few years ago, the Hoffman, with the Albemarle Included, occupied all the Broadway frontage, at Twenty-fifth street. In its best days, the Hoffman house vied with the Fifth Avenue hotel, at Twenty-third street and Fifth avenue, which, some five years ago, gave way to an office sky-scraper. The Fifth Avenue was the headquarters of the Republicans and the. rival Democrats took up a reservation in the Hoffman. Grover Cleveland stopped there frequently and was staying there when elected to the presidency the second time. Gen. Benjamin Butler and Gen. Winfield Scott were regular patrons of the hotel. An outgrowth of the Fifth Avenue" hotel is the famous Amen Corner, an exclusive organization of newspaper men and politicians, who hold annual dinners and pull off stunts like those of the Gridiron club in Washington. Behind the elevator in the Fifth Avenue, adjacent to the buffet, were two seats, joining at a right angle, and upholstered in red plush. These seats were hidden from the lobby, and formed an excellent place for quiet conversation. The late Senator Platt, former Governor B. B. Odell, the late Mark Hanna and many other Republican politicians of that day, along with Sam Blythe, Eddie Riggs and other political writers, used to meet there each afternoon tdr conferences. Somebody dubbed the red plush benches the Amen Corner, and the name stuck. The formal organization grew out of it