By John Ellis KordesVillage Historian

The Hotel Cupola

Q: Was the Cupola of the old Hotel saved? Is the new one on today’s hotel a replica? If not could you tell me why?

When the old Garden City Hotel was torn down in 1973 many assumed this long time symbol of the Village would be saved. It wasn’t. Instead it came crashing to the ground with the rest of the hotel in one of Garden City’s sadder chapters.

Garden City has had four hotels on that site. The first was completed in 1874 by Stewart himself. It was a Victorian structure in the middle of the property surrounded by a large park. In 1895, the famous N.Y. architect Stanford White remodeled it into a much larger Georgian Revival style complete with a cupola on top. In 1899, a fire burned it to the ground. Stanford White then designed an even bigger hotel that opened in 1901 with a new cupola and base that was an exact replica of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. This was the most famous Garden City Hotel with its open air cupola becoming a symbol of this Village along with the Cathedral spire (see the top of the front page of this newspaper). In 1973, time caught up with it and it was demolished. A photograph exists showing the once proud cupola upside down smashed into the ground. Made of wood, it was probably deemed not worthy of saving.

In 1983, a new hotel (finally) opened and it too has a cupola but it’s not the same. It arrived in pieces of man-made material and after being put together on the ground it was hoisted into place. It was larger and wider than previous cupolas and was totally enclosed. No attempt was made in the architecture of this hotel to look like the old hotel except for the cupola gesture. Certainly the use of sand colored brick opposed to the traditional red brick and the inclusion of a clock bore little resemblance to the old hotel (not to mention building the hotel much closer to 7th St. and below ground level to fit nine stories). However, once the Wyndham Condominiums were built (late 1980’s) behind the hotel by a different developer, all questions of the hotel’s architecture ceased as a new target for questioning had arrived.

However, the Village still has a cupola inspired by the old hotel’s cupola. It was put up in 1924 to crown Garden City’s first high school (today’s middle school). It was recently restored and looks great.