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Manger Hotels (later Manger Hotels & Motor Inns) was a major 20th-century national chain of luxury hotels, full service motor inns, and upscale motels. Originally founded in 1907 as a chain of luxury hotels by Julius and William Manger, the company shifted to extensive development of large strategically located motor inns and motels in the 1960s.
The Early Years
The Manger Hotels (New York City)
The Manger Hotels (Washington DC)
The Manger Hotels (Boston)
The Manger Hotels (Philadelphia)
The Manger Hotels (Chicago)
In 1912 the Manger brothers purchased the 8-year lease on the New Grand Hotel from George H. Hurlburt. In 1922 they purchased the hotel from the Brooks estate. The adjoining Grand Hotel Annex, which was also managed by the Mangers but owned by William C. Adams, was purchased from Adams' estate in 1926.
The Mangers' next hotel was the Continental in Philadelphia.
In 1915 the pair took over the lease on the Hotel Netherland from the widow of its long time proprietor, H. P. Whitaker. At the time of the purchase, the Netherlands' residents included Alfred Holland Smith, James J. Coogan, and Edward W. Hatch.
In 1917, William and Julius Manger purchased the Endicott Hotel, which they had previously been leasing, for $1 million.
In 1920 the Mangers obtained a sublease on the Martha Washington Hotel from George C. Brown. Later that year the two purchased the Bell apartment house as well as the lease on the Hotel Cumberland. That same year they purchased The Gotham Hotel, which was managed by Weatherbee & Wood until the Mangers bought out their lease and took over management in 1927.
On January 18, 1923, they purchased the financially struggling Hermitage Hotel from the estate of Charles A. Cowen. One week later the Mangers purchased the Hotel Woodstock from T. Coleman du Pont and Lucius M. Boomer. The following month they purchased the Hotel Wolcott and acquired a 21-year lease on the William M. Sloane-owned Hotel York.
In 1924 the Hotel Claman, a hotel for men that had been completed the previous year, was bought by the Mangers. They soon changed the name to the Times Square Hotel and began providing accommodations to both men and women.
On October 22, 1924, it was announced that the Manger brothers had purchased a block on Seventh Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets from Realty Associates and Bing & Bing for approximately $5.5 million after plans for a sports arena on that site fell through. H. Craig Severance was hired to design a 2,250 room hotel for the property and Bing & Bing were named the general contractors for the project. The twenty-story, Spanish Renaissance-style The Michelangelo opened on November 15, 1926. When it opened, the Manger was the largest hotel in Times Square and the third largest in Manhattan. The total development cost of the Hotel Manger including the purchase of the 50-51 and 7th avenue block was close to $12,000,000.
In 1926, the Manger brothers reached an agreement with Vincent Astor to operate the St. Regis. This arrangement ended the following year when Astor bought out their lease as part of the hotel's sale to the Durham Realty Company.
The Manger hotel chain assisted Richard E. Byrd's expeditions by providing free room and office space for expedition personnel. At Byrd's recommendation, the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names named a mountain in Antarctica Mount Manger for William Manger.
On July 8, 1928, William Manger, vice-president of the Manger chain, died in his apartment at the Grand Northern. He was 63 years old. A lifelong bachelor, Manger left the bulk of his estate to his brother Julius.
In 1931, Manger sold the Times Square and Manger Hotel on 7th avenue and ended its leases on Grand Northern and Cumberland.
During The Great Depression, Manger purchased hotels in Washington D.C. In 1932 he purchased the Hay–Adams Hotel. By 1937 he also owned the Annapolis and Hamilton hotels.
In 1934, Manger purchased The Hotel Windsor in New York City.
On March 28, 1937, Julius Manger died suddenly in his suite at the Hay–Adams Hotel. He was 69 years old. When Julius Manger died in 1937 he was the largest independent hotel owner and operator in the United States as cited in the National Cyclopedia of American Biography.
In 1939, Manger purchased the Hotel Rochester in Rochester, New York from the MetLife. The following year, Metropolitan Life sold the Hotel Rowe in Grand Rapids, Michigan to Manger. In 1941, Manger purchased the 21-story Vanderbilt Hotel in New York City from MetLife.
In 1953, Manger purchased The Allerton in Cleveland for about $2.4 million.
In 1954, Manger purchased the Hotel Savannah in Savannah, Georgia. Manger also owned a motel, the Towne and Country Motor Lodge, in Savannah.
In 1955, Manger introduced a family plan that allowed for children under 14 to stay for free in 9 of the chain's 11 hotels (The New York City Hotel Association outlawed family plans, so it was not available at the Windsor or Vanderbilt). Manger also provided babysitting, special menus, and gifts for children in order to entice more families to their hotels. By 1958, Manger's sales had increased sales by 5%.
In 1958, Manger purchased the DeWitt Clinton Hotel in Albany, New York from the Knott Hotels Corporation. Manger sold the hotel back to Knott five years later.
On January 30, 1959, the company sold its share of the Hotel Manger in Boston to the B&M Railroad. At the time of the sale, Julius Manger Jr. announced that the company was shifting its focus from luxury hotels to motels. In 1960, Manger opened the $2 million Manger Motor Inn in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. The motel had 147 rooms and a 48-foot pool covered in the winter by a transparent plastic bubble. The company also obtained leases on the Tucson Inn in Tucson, Arizona and the Desert Sun in Phoenix, Arizona.
In 1960 the company diversified by announcing the creation of a private food brand. Manger would start by selling its own brand of coffee, returning the family to a business it had left more than 50 years prior. In 1961, Park Avenue Foods was formed to distribute Manger's food products.
In August 1961, Manger Hotels sold its Grand Rapids hotel for $515,000 to a nonprofit affiliated with the Fountain Street Church. The property later became a retirement community known as Olds Manor. In 1963 the company opened the Indianapolis Manger Motor Inn. On January 1, 1966, Manger closed its flagship hotel - The Manger Vanderbilt. Later that year, the Vanderbilt was sold for $3.625 million to an investment group that sought to convert the building into apartments. That same year, Manger sold its Rochester hotel to a local businessman. In 1968 the Tampa, Florida Manger Motor Inn opened.
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