... has devolved immensely.

Had it burned (like other Shorpy hotels), I wonder if wah wah would have saved the WAH.

... thinking "WAH" was the sound Caroline Astor (the "Mrs. Astor") made when her nephew started construction on the Waldorf Hotel next to her brownstone mansion, the ballroom of which held 400 people, hence the New York 400.

More on the feud: here

I would have loved to have stayed there in a lavish suite.

This address is the future site of a much bigger building, the Empire State Building, which opened in 1931.

Always curious what it would be like to have walked around and explored the very tops floors in buildings like this. Private residences, offices, mechanical gear, secret passages, or faux spaces?

The hotel was torn down and replaced by a somewhat taller office building which became well known in its own right.

A wonderful structure and outstanding photograph.

Were those tower structures on the roof radio antennas? The Wireless Ship Act of 1910 required passenger ships leaving from US ports to be equipped with ship to shore radios beginning in 1911. Could these towers have been related to that?

["The output of the station is 5 k.w., and is in daily operation with Chicago and steamers far out on the Atlantic." - Dave]