VANDERBILT HOTEL.

Built in 1912. Says the card: "It occupies an entire block on Park Avenue from 33rd to 34th Street. New York is known for its palatial hotels and the Vanderbilt is the latest and most exclusive on the list." It certainly owns its site; adjacent buildings seem to shrink in mute fear at its feet.

Said the Times in 2003:

Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, the great-grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad magnate, built the hotel in 1912. Heir to millions, Alfred Vanderbilt had grown up in the palatial family house at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, where Bergdorf-Goodman now stands. He built his new hotel primarily for permanent residents, to accommodate a new generation of the rich who sought freedom from household cares -- including himself. He took two floors at the top of the 22-story building.

Alfred went down with the Lusitania.