Concourse Plaza Hotel, former hotel in New York City
The Concourse Plaza Hotel is a ten-story building at the corner of Grand Concourse and East 161st Street in the Bronx, completed in 1923. It contained 500 rooms with private kitchens, elegant ballrooms with chandeliers on the ground floor, and amenities like a barbershop and salon.
The hotel opened in October 1923 with a celebration attended by Governor Al Smith. By the 1960s, the neighborhood changed and it became a welfare hotel in 1968. In 1974, the city took over the building and converted it into a residence for senior citizens.
The hotel served as a social gathering place where residents celebrated weddings, bar mitzvahs, and community events. Tito Puente's band played there every New Year's Eve, and the large ballroom hosted thousands for local celebrations and political rallies.
The building sits next to Joyce Kilmer Park and near the historic Yankee Stadium, making it a central location in the Bronx. Today it functions as a residential building for seniors and cannot be visited as a hotel, but you can see it from the street as a neighborhood landmark.
The building had a hidden rifle range in a basement below the basement level, a private feature few people knew about. It also served as a filming location for acclaimed movies like Marty, which won three Oscars, and The Catered Affair.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
