by Geoff Cobb 
The Wythe Hotel at North 11th Street and Wythe Avenue is a symbol of cool in trendy Williamsburg. The building is a combination of old and new, with a three story sleek glass tower rising out of the remnants of a 1901 industrial building. The hotel’s L-shaped rooftop bar The Ideshas stunning views of the Manhattan skyline, attracting people from around the world to the 72-room boutique hotel.…
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Thank you Geoff…didn’t know re the history. Back in the day it happened to many homes and biz buildings with poor fire codes, probably the most famous being the Triangle Waist fire in downtown Manhattan circa early 1900s that killed many young Jewish and Italian women leading to our present fire codes. Al Smith was instrumental in turning the tide I believe.
Nice article. The only thing left out was that Walentas actually received TARP money, at no interest to help rebuild the thing. He would have done it anyway, and was in the middle of the renovation, but amazingly, no-interest taxpayer dollars went to help Walentas. Shame
Hello,
Thank you for posting about the history of the hotel, its fascinating. I am writing a paper on the hotel for my American History of Historic Preservation class and am looking for more sources on the history of this site. What sources were used here to obtain this information and can they be shared? Thank you!
I used the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Archive
My relative was one of the men who died in the fire.