The Martha Washington Hotel (later known as Hotel Thirty Thirty, Hotel Lola, King & Grove New York, and The Redbury New York) is a building at 30 East 30th Street (later 29 East 29th Street) in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1903 and operated as a women-only hotel for 95 years, the 13-story structure was designed by Robert W. Gibson in the Renaissance Revival style for the Women's Hotel Company. The hotel's namesake, Martha Washington, was the first First Lady of the United States. It is a designated city landmark.
The facade is largely made of brick and stone and contains classical design elements such as brackets, dentils, ornate lintels, quoins, and rustication. On 29th and 30th Streets, the facade is divided vertically into seven bays and horizontally into a two-story base and ten-story upper section, with a recessed top floor. The lower two stories originally contained amenity areas for guests, including a lobby, dining rooms, reception rooms, and ballroom. Generally, men were only permitted to enter the ground-level spaces and some of the second-story spaces. The upper stories originally contained 200 short-term guest rooms and 400 long-term residences, which were downsized to 250 hotel rooms by the 2020s.
The Woman's Hotel Company was established in 1897 and sought to identify a site and raise money over the following four years. Construction began in mid-1901, and the Martha Washington Hotel opened on March 1, 1903, as a hotel and a long-term residence. Though there was initially high demand for the rooms, the hotel struggled, leading its owners to lease it out in 1907. The Manger family operated the Martha Washington from 1920 to 1948, and the Sillins Hotel Corporation operated the hotel from 1950 to 1997. The hotel was converted to a mixed-sex tourist hotel in 1998 and, after a renovation, was renamed the Thirty Thirty in 2000. The hotel was further renovated in 2011, 2014, 2016, and 2019, undergoing several name and ownership changes during that decade. As The Redbury New York, it saw decreased patronage during the COVID-19 pandemic and became a temporary shelter for migrants in 2023.
The Martha Washington Hotel is located at 27–31 East 29th Street in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hotel occupies the center of a city block bounded by Madison Avenue to the west, 30th Street to the north, Park Avenue South to the east, and 29th Street to the south. The land lot is rectangular and measures 14,812 square feet (1,376.1 m2), with frontage of 75 feet (23 m) on 29th and 30th Streets and a depth of 197.5 feet (60.2 m). Nearby buildings include the Church of the Transfiguration, Episcopal and the James New York – NoMad to the west, the Emmet Building and 30 East 29th Street to the south, and the Colony Club building to the north. The site was assembled in 1901 from two land lots that had been occupied by the American Female Guardian Society since 1856.
The Martha Washington Hotel was designed by architect Robert W. Gibson in the Renaissance Revival style. At the time of the hotel's construction in the early 1900s, many hotels were being built with classical architectural features because they had been designed by architects trained in Europe. Gibson, who had trained in England, incorporated classical elements such as brackets, dentils, ornate lintels, quoins, and rustication into the design.
The two primary elevations of the facade, on 29th Street to the south and 30th Street to the north, are very similar to one another. Both elevations rise twelve stories from the ground and are divided vertically into seven bays; the top stories are recessed from the street. The western elevation is partially visible and is made of plain brick with one-over-one sash windows, a recessed exterior light court, and a metal-sheathed section near the top.
The ground floor and second floor piano nobile of both elevations are clad in rusticated blocks of limestone. A string course runs above the ground floor on both elevations. On 30th Street, each of the ground-floor bays is separated by a pier with alternating tan brick and limestone. The entrance on 30th Street is in the center bay, and there are double-height storefronts on either side. The entry doors are made of glass and metal and are topped by a glass transom window. Two of the outer bays feature marble stoops with metal railings that ascend to the storefronts. The ground floor on 29th Street is similar in design except that the entrances are in the outermost bays. The 29th Street entrances are flanked by pairs of rusticated columns, which support a pediment with a centered cartouche and a finial.
On both elevations, the second-story piano nobile is clad with brick and contains stone quoins around the windows. The three center windows of the second story have stone balustrades at their bottoms, as well as round arches with keystones at their tops. The four outer windows on that story contain rectangular openings surrounded by terracotta key patterns. The lowest parts of the outer windows are clad with stone panels, while the upper sections are topped by lintels with splayed keystones. Above the second story are protruding balconettes with iron railings, which are supported by terracotta brackets.
Each window in the third through eighth stories of the northern and southern elevations has a terracotta frame. The outermost bays of the facade are clad with brick, which is arranged to resemble a rusticated facade. The center three bays feature horizontal stone courses at regular intervals, and the middle bay contains three-part windows, some of which are arranged as Palladian windows. The remaining bays have stone windowsills and are topped by lintels with key or splayed patterns. There are decorative spandrel panels above the three central third-story windows, and there are terracotta lunettes above the five central fourth-story windows.
On the ninth story of both elevations there are balconettes with iron railings in front of the outermost bays and the three center windows. All of the ninth-story windows have terracotta lintels. On the tenth story the windows are rectangular and have lintels with splayed patterns. Above the tenth-story windows are keystones with brackets, as well as terracotta corbels, above which runs a horizontal terracotta string course. The eleventh story contains a facade of terracotta panels, interspersed with windows; there is a large cornice above the eleventh story, with modillions and dentils. There are terracotta panels on the twelfth story.
When the hotel first opened it contained advanced mechanical equipment for its time, such as elevators, mail chutes, steam heating, and electric lighting. Every room had natural light exposure; the hotel did not have any interior light courts. Visitors of any sex could use the telegraph, telephone, or messenger services. There were also exterior fire escapes and stairwells. As of 2023, the hotel contains about 143,000 square feet (13,300 m2) of space, spread across 13 stories.
When the Martha Washington Hotel was built the first and second floors were dedicated to communal rooms such as offices, a restaurant, dining rooms, and reception rooms. The lobby was decorated in a colonial style, with leather chairs and a buff-and-white color scheme. While the restaurant was open to the general public, there were dining rooms that could only be used by guests and residents. There were several shops, including a milliner/tailor shop, manicurist/podiatrist, shoe shiner, drug store, and newsstand. Next to the restaurant was a writing room and waiting room for men. Over the years, various spaces in the lobby were carved out to make way for storefronts.
Following a 2000 renovation, a bar and restaurant were created off the lobby. During a renovation in 2011, the hotel's ground floor was gutted, the ceiling was raised, a large glazed-ebony door was installed, and the walls were redecorated with black-and-white photographs of women. After the Martha Washington was renovated again in 2014, a new meeting and event space covering 4,000 square feet (370 m2) was created within the hotel. The public spaces were repainted in walnut colors, with fluted columns and blue floor tiles. There was also a long hallway, with mid-century modern furniture, leading to a check-in desk. The current design of the lobby as of 2023 dates to a 2019 renovation, which added seating areas enclosed with stained-glass panels, as well as blue-tinted lighting and rounded mirrors. There is also a lobby lounge next to the elevators near the entrance. The hotel has a fitness center as well.