Muhammed Ali stayed here after he lost to Joe Frazier across the street at Madison Square Garden, Nikola Tesla invented alternating current on the 33rd floor, and CBS recorded music to broadcast to troops overseas during the Second World War. This hundred-year-old art Deco monolith in New York City is steeped with history. Just visit the lower lobby to find out about how it had the world’s largest barbershop at 42 chairs, the time it hosted a dinner with Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, and see the room where mid-century Hollywood actors got married.
John F. Kennedy stayed here when he was still a senator and Barack Obama, Sr. from Kenya came on a scholarship program initiated by Kennedy. This was the trip where Obama Sr. met his wife. Then, when Hilary Clinton lost to Barack Obama during his re-election, she delivered her concession speech in the Grand Ballroom. Full circle.
Back in the heyday of rail travel, the New Yorker had direct tunnel access to Penn Station, which further connected it all the way to the Empire State Building by pedestrian tunnel. It also had a private power plant in the basement that operated until 1967 with capacity to power 25,000 units. This building is nuts!
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