Hotel St. George Remnants (Entrance to the Clark Street Subway Station)

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Completed in phases between 1890 and 1929, Hotel St. George was once the largest hotel in Brooklyn and one of the largest in the United States. Early in the hotel's storied history, the St. George was a popular spot among celebrities such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Olympian Johnny Weismuller. For much of the twentieth century, it was also one of the few places where same-sex relationships were tolerated. As such, the hotel is an important landmark of LGBTQ history, as well as a general New York City landmark as presidents and leading celebrities like Katherine Hepburn stayed at the St. George when they were in Brooklyn. The hotel fell into disrepair in the second half of the twentieth century and much of the building was destroyed in the 1990s. Some of the building's facade remains above the entrance to the Clark Street Subway Station.

Images

The hotel's entrance today

The hotel in its heyday

The St. George's fabled swimming pool

The 1995 fire that destroyed much of the building

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

Constructed when Brooklyn was still an independent city and not yet a borough, the Hotel St. George occupied an entire city block. Work on the building began in 1885 and was completed in phases with the final phase being finished in 1929. The hotel's enormous tower consisted of thirty stories. When it was completed, the St. George was the largest hotel Brooklyn and in its early decades, it attracted some of the country's most well-known celebrities. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a regular and at least one president, Harry Truman, stayed there. Duke Ellington, Katherine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, and Veronica Lake were just a few of the celebrities who stayed at the hotel and frolicked in its pool.

Somewhat remarkably, given the times and the hotel's prominence, the St. George was also a welcoming space for gay men. It was one of a very few upscale spaces to do so, on either a short- or long-term basis. In the 1920s, the poet Hart Crane lived at the hotel from time to time with his lover, Samuel Loveman. The playwright Tennessee Williams lived in the hotel for several months in 1943 and Truman Capote, who lived in Brooklyn, was a regular of both the hotel's steam room and the swimming pool. The saltwater pool, in particular, was a popular spot and a refuge for gay men. Historian Hugh Ryan described the pool (which is now buried underneath the existing one) as "perhaps the most elegant cruising ground in all of Brooklyn's history."

By the 1960s, however, the hotel's fortunes began to change. The Kennard Hospitality Hotel Group, which owned the property, was accused of neglecting the hotel. The grand St. George, like much of the rest of the city, entered a long and pronounced period of decline. Its famous Art Deco swimming pool was drained in 1974. After sitting empty for a number of years, in 1984, the tower was converted into luxury co-ops. Though the entrances to the other eight buildings that made up the hotel were boarded up, before long the building fell into neglect. At times, nonresidents were able to enter the former hotel and reach all parts of the complex through its interconnected tunnels. The New York Times described the St. George as "one of the city's largest problem buildings." In 1995, a fire that required 500 firefighters destroyed much of the complex, including the tower. Part of the former hotel's lobby now makes up the entrance to the Clark Street Subway Station.

Sources

Dworin, Caroline . Trying to Recapture the Glory Days, Up in the Old Hotel , New York Times . April 3rd 2009. Accessed October 24th 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/nyregion/thecity/05geor.html.

Spellin, Suzanne . Walkabout: Brooklyn's St. George Hotel, Part 7, Brownstoner. May 1st 2012. Accessed October 24th 2020. https://www.brownstoner.com/history/walkabout-brooklyn%e2%80%99s-st-george-hotel-part-7/.

Gray, Christopher . Streetscapes: St. George Hotel; the Hard Life of a Brooklyn Heights Grande Dame , New York Times . December 29th 2002. Accessed October 24th 2020.

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/29/realestate/streetscapes-st-george-hotel-the-hard-life-of-a-brooklyn-heights-grande-dame.html.

Davis , Amanda . St. George Hotel , NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. Accessed October 24th 2020. https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/st-george-hotel/.