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.
Early years
William and Julius Manger were born in Boonville, Missouri. William graduated from Valparaiso University and Julius graduated from Tulane University Law School. The brothers' first business was the International Coffee Company, which imported and sold coffee. The pair then entered the construction business, building homes in Galveston, Texas and New York City. They eventually moved on to commercial projects, including the Builders' Exchange Building in Manhattan.
Company history
Manger brothers
The Mangers entered the hotel business in 1907 when they traded the Builders' Exchange Building for the Plaza Hotel in Chicago. The pair then expanded their hotel operations to New York City, where they took over management of the Grand Northern and Navarre hotels.
The Early Years
The Manger Hotels (New York City)
Wolcott Hotel, 4 West 31st Street
Hotel Imperial, 81st to 82nd Street and Broadway
Great Northern Hotel, 118 West 57th Street
Bell Apartment Hotel, Bronx, New York
Times Square Hotel, 255 W. 43rd Street
Hermitage Hotel, 42nd Street and 7th Avenue
Cumberland Hotel, Broadway and 54th Street
Endicott Hotel, 81st Street and Columbus Avenue
Navarre Hotel, 38th Street, and 7th Avenue
Grand Hotel, Broadway and 31st Street
York Hotel, 36th Street and 7th Avenue
Hotel Manger, 50-51 street, 7th avenue
St. Regis Hotel, East 55th Street, 5th Avenue
Gotham Hotel, 55th and Fifth Avenue
Netherlands Hotel (Sherry Netherlands Hotel) Cumberland Hotel, Broadway at 54th Street Hotel Martha Washington, 29 to 30 East 30th Street Windsor Hotel, West 58th Street Hotel Aberdeen, West 32nd Street
The Manger Hotels (Washington DC) The Hay Adams Hotel, 800 16TH ST NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20006 The Annapolis Hotel, 11to to 12th on H Streets, NW Washington, D.C The Hamilton Hotel, 1001 14th St NW Washington, DC 20005 United States
The Manger Hotels (Boston) The Manger Hotel, Boston & Maine R. R. Terminal and Boston Madison Square Garden, North Station
The Manger Hotels (Philadelphia) The Continental Hotel, (834 Chestnut Street in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
The Manger Hotels (Chicago) The Hotel Plaza, (Chicago, Clark and North, Lincoln Park)
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.