Behind Subway’s Phantom Hotel Entrance, Neither Arias Nor Opulence Linger

The management of the Astor family’s Hotel Knickerbocker was baffled.Only days after its opening on Oct. 24, 1906, the 15-story hotel at Broadway and West 42nd Street was already bursting at its Beaux-Arts seams. Two-thirds of its rooms were occupied. Diners were being turned away from its restaurants.