Roger Smith Hotel

History

The Roger Smith was originally a hotel chain. The Roger Smith Corporation opened the first Roger Smith hotel in Stamford, Connecticut on 29 December 1928 with Frederick Charlton as its first manager. They went on to add seven other hotels to the chain over the next ten years. The Elton Hotel in Waterbury, Conn., was a Roger Smith property when John F. Kennedy made an important campaign stop there Nov. 6, 1960, just before his election. The Stamford branch was demolished in 1981. The Roger Smith Corporation bought the Behriont Hotel, located in White Plains, New York, and Hotel Brittany in 1931. The Brewster Hotel and the Hotel Cameron were acquired in 1934. Other hotels were added to the Roger Smith chain in Holyoke, Mass. in 1937, New Brunswick, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

The current Roger Smith Hotel, located on 47th and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, was taken over by the Roger Smith Corporation in 1938. Prior to that it was called the Hotel Winthrop, whose building had been constructed by Hearn & Erich in 1926. The hotels in the chain were either destroyed due to dilapidation or changed ownership, as was the case of the White Plains branch. James Knowles took over the management of the Manhattan hotel in 1988 and it is perhaps the only of the eight hotels still bearing the name Roger Smith. Knowles is a painter and sculptor. He graduated from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in painting and sculpture. His father-in-law was Oscar de Lima, who had run the Roger Smith before him. Knowles took over the property after de Lima's death in 1987.

Architecture

The current structure features 136 rooms. The building's facade is made of bricks. The decor is heavily influenced by art and features artistic pieces created by Knowles, who is both the hotel's president and artist-in-residence. Two pairs of bronze statues adorn the main entrance.