How America’s Most Famous Hotel Began to Fall Apart: The Plaza Hotel

On the corner of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, the Plaza Hotel was built to prove that New York had joined the great capitals of the world. When it opened in 1907, it was the most luxurious hotel America had ever seen—French Renaissance architecture, marble halls, crystal chandeliers, and room prices that exceeded most annual salaries. From the beginning, the economics never worked. Behind the glamour were crushing debts, repeated ownership changes, suicides, bankruptcies, and financial disasters that followed nearly every man who tried to own it. The Plaza became a stage for American ambition: presidents plotting strategy, tycoons displaying power, celebrities chasing immortality—and investors discovering that prestige can be ruinously expensive. Over more than a century, the Plaza was rebuilt, gutted, restored, sold, nearly lost, and finally transformed into something entirely different. Part hotel, part private residence, part monument, it survives not because it makes sense—but because it became too symbolic to fail. This is the story of America’s most famous hotel, and the hidden cost of becoming an icon. 👉 Subscribe for more long-form stories about lost wealth, power, and the buildings that couldn’t escape their own ambition. 💬 Comment below: Was saving the Plaza worth the price—or should icons be allowed to disappear?