Hotel Taft

The Michelangelo Hotel
The historic Taft Hotel building in 2009
Hotel chain	Starhotels
General information
Location	Manhattan, New York City
Address	152 West 51st Street
Opening	1926
Management	Starhotels
Height	226 ft
Technical details
Floor count	22
Design and construction
Architect	H. Craig Severance
Other information
Number of rooms	178

The Taft Hotel building is a historic 22-story pre-war Spanish Renaissance structure that occupies the entire eastern-facing block of 7th Avenue between 50th and 51st Street and Seventh Avenue, just north of Times Square, in New York City. In its modern configuration, it features two separate and distinct uses, each with their own entrance on 51st St. The first and largest portion of building is devoted to the residential condominium called Executive Plaza, with each of its 440 units being privately owned. Certain units are rented by their owners to the public through the ExecuStay brand. Sharing a smaller portion of the building is The Michelangelo, a Starhotels hotel.

The building was designed by H. Craig Severance and opened in 1926 as the Manger Hotel, a major hotel chain of the period. It was connected to the famous Roxy Theatre, a movie and stage show palace of the same time. The lobby of the Roxy was actually located in the 50th St and Seventh Avenue corner of the hotel. On opening, the hotel offered 2,250 rooms and was the largest hotel in Times Square. The development cost more than $10 million, an enormous amount money at the time. Madison Square Garden was a block to the west and drew thousands for major events.

It was renamed for President William Howard Taft in 1931 after being sold.

One of the hotel's most famous features was the Taft Grill.

The George Hall Orchestra (sometimes called the George Hall Taft Hotel Orchestra) performed from the hotel on Monday through Saturday at noon on CBS Radio, starring Dolly Dawn. The band's signature song was "Love Letters in the Sand".

Other big band performances were by Artie Shaw, Xavier Cugat, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Tony Pastor.