“From the beginning the Barbizon was built as a fantasy hotel for aspiring female creatives,” Bren said. The 27-floor, salmon-hued residence opened in 1928, and took its name from a 19th-century artists community outside Paris. Paulina Bren on the Barbizont Hotel’s place in women’s liberation You could have your moment in the sun and be free, but that moment has a sell-by date. They had common areas that were very glamorous where they could socialize, and they cost less than men’s residences - since women often had the lowest paying jobs and earned pennies to the dollar compared to men.” “They had no kitchens, so wouldn’t be bogged down with chores,” Bren said. These new residential hotels offered a solution, promising independence, respectability and also camaraderie. These modern women didn’t want to stay, as Bren put it, in a “dowdy old boarding house,” but they couldn’t rent an apartment on their own either. But the 1920s saw a spate of new ladies’ residences for the thousands of flappers flocking to the Big Apple in search of fame, fortune and fun. The Barbizon wasn’t the first women’s residential hotel in New York City - the Martha Washington opened in 1903. “I wanted to reinsert the Barbizon into those histories.” “By charting the Barbizon’s history, you can also tell the story of New York City’s 20th century and women’s place,” she said. Her book traces the rise and fall of Manhattan’s most famous women-only residence and burnishes its reputation, not just as a boarding house for glamour girls, but as a New York City icon. “But it isn’t as well known as other New York institutions, like the Chelsea Hotel, and it should be.” Amenities at the Barbizon included libraries, a rooftop garden, a swimming pool and a gym - where Rita Hayworth (in black) posed for Life magazine. “The Barbizon is such a fascinating place,” Bren told The Post. In 2006, after several unsuccessful attempts at rebranding, the hotel was converted into luxury condominiums. Yet by the 1970s, the once-lively Barbizon had lost its allure. ![]() Sylvia Plath threw all her clothes off the Barbizon’s roof on her last day as a magazine intern - an act she would later immortalize, along with the hotel, in her novel “The Bell Jar.” Judy Garland sent her daughter Liza Minnelli there, and then drove the front desk crazy when she called every three hours to check up on her. Grace Kelly shimmied down its hallways half-naked, and a pouty Rita Hayworth posed in its gym for a Life magazine shoot, wearing a two-piece playsuit and heels. ![]() Joan Crawford, Cloris Leachman, Ali MacGraw and Joan Didion all stayed there. The hotel was “where almost every unmarried woman who came to New York” resided, according to historian Paulina Bren’s delightful new book “ The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free” (Simon & Schuster). The first thing they did? Headed straight to Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street, maneuvered way past the men hanging around “like vultures” and booked a room at the Barbizon. So, in April 1936, for her 21st birthday, she and her best friend bought cheap overnight tickets from the Midwest to the Big Apple. London’s old hotels learn new tricks as wealthy Americans flood the UKĮvelyn Echols always dreamed of making her way to New York City. Sleeping in a tent in Catskills reaches mountain high numberĮnigmatic buyer snags up $53M Aman New York condo Four Seasons in standoff with Beanie Babies mogul, could stay shut for years
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