Library Hotel

The hotel's front entrance
View toward the hotel

Library Hotel is a 60-room boutique hotel in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.[1] It is located at 299 Madison Avenue (at 41st Street), near Bryant Park, the New York Public Library Main Branch, and Grand Central Terminal. The hotel was designed by architect Stephen B. Jacobs.[2]

Each of the Library Hotel's ten guest floors is themed after a major category of the Dewey Decimal Classification. The 5th floor, for example, is the 500s (the Sciences). Each room is a subcategory or genre, such as Mathematics (Room 500.001) or Botany (Room 500.004). Dewey categories 000, 100, and 200 are placed on the 10th, 11th, and 12th floors, respectively.[2] There are 50–100 books and decorations in each room that accompany the theme, for a total of 6,000 books throughout the hotel.[3]

Due to this classification scheme, the hotel owners were sued in 2003 by OCLC (owners of the Dewey Decimal Classification system). OCLC subsequently reached an agreement with the hotel owners, thus enabling the hotel to continue using the Dewey system.[4]

The Library Hotel is owned and operated by Henry Kallan, whose Library Hotel Collection includes Manhattan's Hotel Giraffe, Hotel Elysée, and Casablanca Hotel.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Library Hotel website
  2. ^ a b "The Library Hotel". I Love Libraries. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  3. ^ Putnam, Lindsay (April 1, 2015). "Hey, bookworms! Stay in this hotel inspired by the Dewey Decimal System". New York Post. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  4. ^ "OCLC and The Library Hotel settle trademark complaint" (Press release). OCLC. November 24, 2003.

40°45′7.65″N 73°58′45.87″W / 40.7521250°N 73.9794083°W / 40.7521250; -73.9794083