Passageway to the Knickerbocker

"The Knickerbocker bar, beamed upon by Maxfield Parrish's jovial, colorful 'Old King Cole,' was well crowded."  F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise (1920)

My morning subway route is the NQR train to Times Square Station.  Leaving the station earlier this week, I noticed an obscure door at the end of the track marked "Knickerbocker."  The passageway looked like it had been boarded up for years but had led somewhere in the past.  Could it be that it led to the iconic Knickerbocker Hotel?

The grimy sign above the door says "Knickerbocker"

Sure enough, the building just above the track at 42nd and Broadway was the old Knickerbocker Hotel.  The iconic Hotel was built in 1906 and was one of the most fashionable spots in New York during the time period.  The underground passageway was built so that its wealthy patrons arriving in private train cars could privately enter the hotel.  The Hotel bar, called the Knickerbocker bar, is rumored to be the site where one Martini de Arma di Taggia created the first martini for John Rockefeller. 

"Old King Cole" painting

Behind the Knickerbocker bar hung the painting "Old King Cole" by Maxfield Parrish which depicts a monarch with a rather sheepish grin flanked by several disgusted knights.  According to legend, Parrish and his colleagues held a competition to see who first could portray the act of passing gas in a painting.  Apparently, Parrish one.  Following the Knickerbocker Hotel's closure in 1920, the "Old King Cole" was moved to the St. Regis Hotel where it remains today.  I visited the bar recently for one of their "Red Snapper" bloody marys (a great drink but at $21 a drink bring your wallet).  You can read more about the "Old King Cole" painting and its recent restoration here.

The Knickerbocker hotel has now been converted into a Gap where the lobby used to stand and commercial office space where the hotel rooms were. In February 2012, however, the building was purchased by a U.S. Reit that intends to restore the building to a 330 room 4-star hotel opening late 2013.

Former Knickerbocker Hotel (42nd and Broadway)

Knickerbocker Hotel circa 1909