Seasons Greetings, History Lovers,
I hope everyone who celebrates had a most happy Hanukah and and a magnificently merry Christmas! The Hubs and I certainly have savored the season — the winter holiday market at Bryant Park, a performance of Christmas music by Monmouth Civic Chorus at The Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ, and The Rockettes’ annual Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. If you missed my post on the Rockettes, you can catch up here.
A few days before Christmas, we popped into the Plaza Hotel at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. Constructed in the French chateaux style, the 19-floor hotel was considered a skyscraper when it opened in 1907. From the start, the romance of its castle like appearance — white brick and marble facade, mansard roofs, ornate dormers, and towers, not to mention magnificent views of adjacent Central Park — captured the popular imagination.
In the ensuing decades, The Plaza has hosted European royalty, film stars, and the creme de la creme of society on both sides of The Pond. It has been the site of innumerably splashy society gatherings, most memorably Truman Capote’s “Black and White Ball” in 1966, as well as the setting of films such as the Hitchcock thriller, North By Northwest (1959), whose star, Cary Grant, lived at the hotel (sweet commute!), Eloise at the Plaza (2003), adapted from Kay Thompson's stories about a precocious six-year-old girl who lives at the hotel, and of course Home Alone (1990), now celebrating its 25th anniversary.
While it’s safe to say that The Plaza shines bright year-long, the hotel is especially luminous at Christmas. When I first moved to NYC in ((gulp)) 2008, anyone could enter the (newly renovated and reopened) hotel to gawp over the spectacular holiday decorations. That changed once the condo residences were sold and populated. These days, unless you are a hotel guest or have a reservation at one of the restaurants (Palm Court or Champagne Bar)1, holiday admittance is limited to before 9am and after 9pm; otherwise the main lobby entrance is cordoned off and manned by liveried doormen, who are polite but firm.2
A last minute cancellation gave us our in — two bar seats at the Palm Court! The circular bar is situated in the center of the restaurant, giving us a birds’ eye panorama of all the holiday happenings. Duly enthroned, we were able to picture take and people watch to our hearts’ content while sipping spirits — the Vesper Martini a la James Bond for the Hubs; a humble chardonnay for Yours Truly — and nibbling on a shared charcuterie board. (If you wish to partake of the hotel’s justifiably famous afternoon tea, a substantial repast of both savories and sweets, you’ll need a reservation unless staying at the hotel).
Are the drinks and food at the Palm Court très special? Barring the tea service, no, they are not. But sipping even a nothing special glass of wine while bathed in sunlight strained through the soft amber and verdant hues of the stunning stained glass skylight feels very special indeed.
Afterward, we strolled the hotel lobby ogling the truly spectacular decorations.
Flush with courage from the not very special glass of chardonnay, I approached the liveried porter minding the access point to the guests-only lobby and explained I was a novelist with a book set at The Plaza. He very kindly dropped the velvet stanchion rope and let me through. I zipped through for fact-checking and picture taking, leaving the Hubs behind as collateral.
In IRISH EYES, this stunning trio of 1907 brass elevators3 is the gateway to a second chance at love for Rose and Adam — with some pretty messy complications.
Enjoy this short scene from IRISH EYES set at The Plaza Hotel in 1911. And, if you’re not already subscribed to this free History With Hope newsletter, or my monthly author newsletter, subscribe before January 1st and be entered to win a copy of The Versailles Formula by historical mystery novelist, Nancy Bilyeau, on Substack as History, Horror & Headlines.
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From IRISH EYES
Copyright 2023 Hope C. Tarr
I had a keen dislike of hotels though of course Adam wouldn’t have known that.
The red-and-green-striped motorized taxi left me off at The Plaza’s canopied main entrance. Standing at the foot of the crimson-carpeted steps, monogrammed with back-to-back P’s, I girded myself to go inside. Why had I come? What was it I hoped to find here? Once I listened to whatever excuses Adam meant to make and gave him a proper piece of my mind, could I finally close the door on our painful past?
Decorated for Christmas, the main lobby, with its crystal-globed chandeliers and gleaming grand staircase, carried me back to my first setting foot inside The Windsor, shivering in my shabby coat. How far I’d come since then. Too far to risk everything I’d built.
More than one corridor led off from the lobby. I stopped a passing porter, who pointed me to the tearoom. The strains of a string quartet and a hive-like humming brought me to an atrium of Grecian-style fleur-de-pêche marble pillars and mirrored doorways. Palm trees, ferns, and sundry flora festooned the arched alcoves. A stained-glass dome soared from the salon’s center, its soft yellow-and-green panels painting the wan winter light a sun-kissed gold.
I spotted Adam at a table for two in one of the rear alcoves. He saw me too, his mouth lifting in the lopsided smile I’d once loved so dearly. Courage curdling, I looked away, contemplating bolting down the hallway from whence I’d come.
Before I could, the maître d’ looked up from the seating ledger he’d been poring over. “Good afternoon, madam. Reservation, please?”
“The lady is with me.”
Adam stepped swiftly behind me. In a blink, my coat was whisked away and handed off to a heretofore invisible hotel employee.
Cupping my elbow, Adam guided us to his table. “You came. I wasn’t sure you would.”
Cheeks warm, I admitted, “That makes two of us.”
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Books make great gifts at the holidays! Find IRISH EYES and STARDUST on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Target, Walmart and wherever books are sold.
Signed copies are available at these booksellers:
Barnes & Noble Upper West Side, Manhattan
Barnes & Noble, Brick Plaza, NJ
Barnes & Noble, Holmdel, NJ
Barnes & Noble, Pikesville, MD
Book Culture, Manhattan (2 locations)
The Corner Bookstore, Manhattan
Posman Books Chelsea Marketplace, Manhattan
Thunder Road Books, Spring Lake, NJ
The Comfort Zone, Ocean Grove, NJ
Thanks for reading History with Hope! This post is public so feel free to share it.
Alas, the Oak Room and Bar, once the scene of innumerable power lunches and after work drinks, are reserved for private events.
There is a separate entrance for the food court and shops.
The Plaza Hotel’s iconic brass elevators, especially those serving the grand ballroom, are original hydraulic models from the hotel’s 1907 opening. They have been motorized over the decades.
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