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Freehand Hotel

23 Lexington Avenue

New York, New York

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Freehand is a 395-room hotel housed in Flatiron’s former George Washington Hotel, once home to storied writers, musicians, and artists. The building was erected in 1928 as a hotel and has had some famous residents, including W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood. Auden called it "much the nicest hotel in town." And "there is a good piano," he told visiting friend Benjamin Britten. On leaving the hotel, he presented the manager with a thank-you note in verse, written on hotel stationery. The hotel has a past of a great lair. It was a brothel at one point, and a bootlegging joint during Prohibition. In 1981, a fugitive murderer was cornered by the FBI in the lobby, and, two years later, there was a drug raid that made headlines. The hotel has at many times been in danger of being demolition but has been saved by preservation-oriented citizens and institutions. In 1990, it's became a dorm until its most recent conversion to a hotel. 

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The conversion back to famed a hotel included a full exterior and interior restoration.  At the exterior, the two-story cast stone base with decorative terra cotta arched windows surrounds was soiled and covered in layers of paint and years of graffiti. The cast stone was cleaned and new storefronts that match the originals were installed in every bay. The iron railings located at the 14th floor balconettes were secured, repaired where needed and scraped, primed and painted.  Decorative stone, masonry lintels, windows sill and coping stones were replaced with replicates to match the warm mix of cast stone and brick facade. The rooftop masonry arcade was restored to its former glory. Today's Freehand Hotel recalls the George Washington’s historic days with a design made to impress the modern guest.