Bowman-Biltmore Hotels - New York

New York

• The New York Biltmore Hotel, designed by Warren & Wetmore, was part of Terminal City, a massive complex of hotels and office buildings connected to Grand Central Terminal. For 23 years the New York Biltmore was the home to the Grand Central Art Galleries, founded in 1922 by John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, Walter Leighton Clark, and others. In 1942, the hotel was the location of the Biltmore Conference which was a meeting of mostly Zionist groups that produced the Biltmore Program, a series of demands regarding Palestine. The hotel was closed in August 1981 by Paul Milstein, gutted to its steel skeleton and converted to an office building. retaining only the Biltmore's famous Palm Court clock.
• The Commodore Hotel, also by Warren & Wetmore, was on the opposite side of Grand Central. It was bought by Donald Trump, similarly gutted to its steel skeleton in the 1970s, and converted to the Grand Hyatt New York, retaining the original floorplan, but nothing else.
• The Belmont Hotel, across 42nd St from Grand Central, was the tallest in the world when built in 1908. It was demolished in 1939.
• The Westchester Biltmore Country Club was founded by Bowman, who hired Walter Travis to design two golf courses in Westchester County, New York.
• The Roosevelt Hotel, also connected to Grand Central Terminal opened as a United Hotel and merged with the Bowman-Biltmore Group in 1929. This hotel was later purchased by Conrad Hilton in 1948, Realty Hotel ( New York Central Railroad) operated it until 1980 and today is a operated by Interstate Hotels and owned by Pakistan Airlines.