NEW YORK — A
century after the Titanic sank, the legacy of the ship's wealthiest and
most famous passenger lives on quietly at the luxury hotel he built in
New York City.
John Jacob Astor IV, who was one of the richest men in America, went
down with the ship in 1912 after helping his pregnant wife escape into
the last lifeboat. But at the St. Regis, one of Manhattan's oldest
luxury hotels, the aristocratic sensibilities of the Gilded Age remain
intact. Butlers in white ties and black tailcoats still roam the
hallways. The lobby, with its frescoed ceiling and elaborate marble
staircase, has not been altered since Astor died. And the thousands of
leather-bound books that he collected have been preserved on the same
bookshelves for 100 years.
This year, in tribute to Astor's memory, the hotel worked with a
publisher to add a new book to those shelves. "A Survivor's Tale," which
was released this month, is the first-person account of a passenger who
survived the disaster by jumping overboard as the ship disappeared into
the water.
"This was his jewel," said Astor's granddaughter, Jackie Drexel, as
she gazed around the hotel one recent morning. "My grandfather used to
come and walk the stairs frequently first thing in the morning to make
sure everything was running perfectly. He conceived of it with great
pride."
The copper moldings on the roof have turned green with age, but
inside, the antique furniture and silk wall coverings hearken back to a
more refined era. And the guests wandering its hallways are still the
wealthiest of the wealthy: the hotel is a favorite among royal families
and celebrities hoping to keep a low-profile and avoid the paparazzi.
"The key element to everything in the hotel is the discretion," said
Paul Nash, the general manager. "We have heads of state, royal families,
entertainers, politicians."
When Astor built the St. Regis in 1904, it overlooked Fifth Avenue's
row of mansions and, at just 18 stories high, was one of the tallest
skyscrapers in the city. It was modeled after the extravagant hotels of
Europe that had not yet become ubiquitous in the U.S.
At that time, it was common for the very rich to live in luxurious
hotels like the St. Regis for long stretches of time. According to Nash,
that hasn't changed, either: The hotel's presidential suite, which
costs a cool $21,000 per night, is routinely occupied by the same guests
for three months straight.
"They can walk around the hotel like it's their home, and nobody will
disturb them," explained 25-year-old Jennifer Giacche, one of the
hotel's butlers.
While the uniform looks like it was plucked from the set of a period
drama, the St. Regis butlers' job responsibilities have evolved over the
years to meet the needs of 21st-century jetsetters. They still pour
coffee and fluff pillows, but the butlers of today — a rarity at modern
hotels — are really more like highly educated personal assistants who
speak several languages, not the stuffy servants portrayed on TV's
"Downton Abbey."
"Our guests may travel by private jet, but they're also probably wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt," Nash said.
Using "e-butler," the hotel's personalized smartphone app, guests can
start issuing instructions to their butler before they even check in,
whether it's ordering a limousine or a bottle of champagne. Visitors
preparing for an extended stay often want the furniture in their rooms
completely rearranged. One of the most memorable requests came from a
guest who wanted her bathtub filled with chlorinated pool water (which
the butlers obliged without asking why).
Like his guests, Astor enjoyed a pampered existence as a member of
one of New York's most powerful families. But he was also a keen
inventor — creating an early form of air conditioning by blowing cold
air over the hotel's wall vents — and an avid bibliophile. With the help
of Thornwillow Press, a small publisher of limited-edition books, the
hotel is in the process of restoring and cataloguing the nearly 3,000
books that Astor left behind.
"If John Jacob Astor were to walk through the rooms, it would be
entirely familiar to him," said Luke Ives Pontifell, Thornwillow's
founder. "He would recognize the books on the shelves. It's a time
capsule."
On April 4, the St. Regis held a small dinner in the hotel library to
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking. The guests,
who included some of Astor's descendants, were dressed in fur and
feathers as they perused his books and dined on food inspired by the
last meal served aboard the ship. They also received copies of "A
Survivor's Tale," which was written by Jack Thayer and is being
published publicly for the first time with the permission of his family.
Thayer, who was 17 years old then, recounted how his mother escaped
in a lifeboat, but his father perished along with most of the men on
board. Thayer survived by clinging to a lifeboat for hours in the
freezing sea, listening to the wailing of the passengers who froze to
death.
"It sounded like locusts on a midsummer night, in the woods in Pennsylvania," he wrote.
Astor was last spotted smoking a cigar on the deck. His body was
later pulled out of the sea. His wife gave birth to a son weeks later.
"I think he stayed to the very end, putting people in lifeboats,"
said Drexel, his granddaughter. "He never tried to escape himself."
Drexel believes he would have been pleased with the way his legacy
has been preserved at the St. Regis. If he had survived the sinking, she
believes he would have built many more hotels in his lifetime.
"It makes me proud to speak of him," she said. "I wish I'd known him.
I wish my dad had known him. I think that's the saddest — that dad
never had a chance to meet him."
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