How A Family Feud Created This Famous NYC Hotel

This is the story of how a feud between two cousins

accidentally started one of the nicest hotel chains in the world. If you're a part of this Bright Trip community

you've seen how our courses and the videos on this channel help you experience and understand the world better

Learning is what we're all about. And one of the things I've been learning a lot about

over the last few months is Manhattan. We made a course called How It Became Manhattan

In this course, I go to New York City and I show you all the stories

behind some of the major landmarks. When it comes to New York, there is so much to cover

And so obviously not everything made it into the course. So I wanna share with you a little bonus lesson

and show you what this course is like with something that didn't make it in. The Waldorf Astoria

If you've ever searched for a hotel, you might have come across the Waldorf Astoria

It's this huge chain of luxury hotels that are all over the world and they're just over the top fancy

Look up some of the videos on YouTube of their nicest rooms, and it's wild

We can bring in musicians, we can bring in an office. Just the over-the-top fanciness makes it interesting

but what makes the Waldorf Astoria really fascinating is that it's linked to the development of Times Square

Yes, the Times Square. When Times Square was developed, the land was owned by someone named John Jacob Astor

Astor was an immigrant from a town in Germany called Waldorf. He came just shortly after the Revolutionary War When he acquired this land it was just a farm Because of his investments in real estate in New York at that time he became one of the wealthiest men in modern history

We're talking like Jeff Bezos status. Billions and billions of dollars in today's money

A lot of places still carry his name, like Astoria, a town in Oregon from his fur trading days

or Astor Place, which is a subway stop that was on the original Manhattan line of the subway system in New York

And it's still in use today, So if you see Astor Place, now you know where the name is from

When he died, he left his fortune to his family. And you fast forward the clock to the late 1800s

and two of his great-grandsons, who are cousins, hold most of this wealth

John Jacob Astor IV, who goes by Jack, or as the public calls him, Jackass

Short for Astor, of course. And his cousin, William Waldorf Astor, or Willie

Naturally, being some of the wealthiest men in the world, These two led very public and really dumb arguments, like who was the Mrs. Astor

Also, just as a quick side note, I find Jack very fascinating

He wrote this science fiction book about what New York City would look like in the year 2000

and he predicted what the subway systems would be. He invented a bicycle brake, and then he eventually died on the Titanic

Jack was very professional. But back to the family feud. So Willie had a family mansion and he wanted to build a new fancy hotel in its spot

So he tore it down and built the Waldorf His aunt Jack mother was really displeased because she lived right next door and this new hotel brought in all these strangers into her neighborhood and the new structure

cast a shadow on her garden. And what happens when one of the richest families in the world's garden isn't getting enough sun

You build a new mansion. So the competition began. So Jack decided to build a new mansion

for his mother uptown and replace her old house next to the Waldorf with an even bigger hotel, the Astoria

And he made sure that this one had electricity. And these hotels weren't just some casual bed and breakfast

These were a status symbol, a place where the most affluent parts of society gathered

The hotels had fancy restaurants and nice theaters. Just look at these photos

Eventually, the Waldorf and the Astoria were run by the same management

and they combined and became one hotel, the Waldorf Astoria. And it's this chain that continues on that's this luxury chain today

But this original structure was demolished in 1929 to make way for a building you might have heard of, the Empire State Building

However, the cousins didn't stop their hotel endeavors there. They continued to try to one-up each other

This time they took it to their home turf, the land that would become Times Square

The subway was being built and a major stop along the subway was going to be the Times Square stop

Willie built a hotel in the area called the Hotel Astor. And not to be outdone by his cousin

Jack built a hotel that reached four stories taller called the Knickerbocker He also made sure to add a special entrance to his hotel in the subway And this was actually a condition of him allowing them

to build the subway through his land. The entrance has been sealed off, but you can still see it today

The Astor family wasn't the only ones capitalizing on the foot traffic that would be in this area

And their hotels attracted a lot more people to come do the same and build hotels in the area

many of which housed theaters. This is when Times Square really started to take shape

into the theater district that we still know it to be. The Hotel Astor followed the trend

of being replaced by a skyscraper, but the Knickerbocker still stands in Times Square today

So when you're there, if you visit, keep an eye out for it. And if you visit the Empire State Building

imagine what this spot used to look like with these two lavish hotels here

In this course we talk about the whole development of Times Square and go much more in depth

of how it came to be. We talk about its humble beginnings, some of its darker days, all the way to the bright billboards

I wanna give a quick shout out to this book, Broadway, A History of New York City in 13 Miles

which is where I first learned of this story. It's a super good book

You should check it out. Whether or not you're a curious traveler or just a lifelong learner

I left a link in the description where you can find the full course on brighttrip.com

So head there to check it out. And while you're on our website, if you sign up for our newsletter, you can get 10% off your first purchase

We'll see you there. Thank you