Proposal for Astor House (Park Hotel), New York (perspective)

Proposal for Astor House (Park Hotel), New York (perspective)

Ithiel Town

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing shows a design produced by A.J. Davis and Ithiel Town (as Town & Davis, 1829-1835) for the Astor House, the first luxury hotel in New York City envisioned by John Jacob Astor. Athough Town & Davis' imaginative study was very modern and quite spectacular, the actual commission went to Isaiah Rogers in 1834 and the hotel opened in 1836 as the Park Hotel. The south side of the building was demolished in 1913 to make way for the subway constructions, and the rest of the building was torn down in 1926.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Proposal for Astor House (Park Hotel), New York (perspective)Proposal for Astor House (Park Hotel), New York (perspective)Proposal for Astor House (Park Hotel), New York (perspective)Proposal for Astor House (Park Hotel), New York (perspective)Proposal for Astor House (Park Hotel), New York (perspective)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.