December 17, 2014
Gershwin Hotel Becomes The Evelyn
There’s a new lady in town. As of today, NoMad’s Gershwin Hotel has been renamed The Evelyn, after the famous 1900s chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit. The new name, with its sexier connotation, was announced yesterday at the end of the building’s year-long, $20 million renovation.
Immortalized in the film The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, Nesbit made a national name for herself as a stage performer and an artists’ model. That fame became infamy after Nesbitt’s, lover, famed architect Stanford White, was shot dead by her husband, millionaire Harry Thaw, on the roof of Madison Square Garden. At the time of the murder in 1906, the Garden was a half block from The Evelyn at Madison Avenue, between 26th and 27th Streets.
This isn’t The Evelyn’s first change in identity. When it first opened in 1905, the hotel was named the Hotel Brotzell before it later became The Gershwin. Triumph Hotels, who owns and manages the property, made the upgrades to keep pace with the fast evolution of NoMad. With its new look and name, the hotel will reflect the neighborhood’s position as one of the city’s hippest hotspots.
“We needed to bring the hotel up to the standards of NoMad,” said Ronny Apfel, chief financial officer of Triumph Hotels, a family-owned group of six properties in Manhattan.
The recent renovations include the addition of a new restaurant and bar. The restaurant will provide, for the first time in the hotel’s history, room service. While its 160 rooms currently go for around $200 a night, the owners of The Evelyn hope to start commanding prices of $400 a night over the course of next year.