DESIGNATION REPORT Hotel Cecil & Minton’s Playhouse Building Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 534 Commission Hotel Cecil & Minton’s LP-2671 Playhouse Building June 27, 2023

DESIGNATION REPORT Hotel Cecil & Minton’s Playhouse Building LOCATION Borough of Manhattan 206 West 118th Street (aka 150-158 St. Nicholas Avenue, 206-212 West 118th Street) LANDMARK TYPE Individual SIGNIFICANCE The Renaissance Revival-style Hotel Cecil was home to Minton’s Playhouse, the legendary nightclub where the pivotal style “bebop” emerged and flourished in the 1940s, redefining jazz and American music. Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 534 Commission Hotel Cecil & Minton’s LP-2671 Playhouse Building 2 of 27 June 27, 2023

Hotel Cecil & Minton’s Playhouse Building NYC Municipal Archives, c. 1940 LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION COMMISSIONERS Lisa Kersavage, Executive Director Sarah Carroll, Chair Mark Silberman, General Counsel Frederick Bland, Vice Chair Timothy Frye, Director of Special Projects and Diana Chapin Strategic Planning Wellington Chen Kate Lemos McHale, Director of Research Stephen Chu Cory Herrala, Director of Preservation Mark Ginsberg Michael Goldblum Anne Holford-Smith REPORT BY Everardo Jefferson Matthew A. Postal, Research Department Jeanne Lutfy Angie Master EDITED BY Kate Lemos McHale PHOTOGRAPHS BY Lisa Buckley, Bilge Klose, Matthew A. Postal Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 534 Commission Hotel Cecil & Minton’s LP-2671 Playhouse Building 3 of 27 June 27, 2023

Hotel Cecil & Minton’s Playhouse Building 206 West 118th Street, Manhattan Designation List 534 LP-2671 Built: 1895-96 Architect: Julius F. Munckwitz Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 1923, Lot 38 Building Identification Number (BIN): 1058396 Calendared: April 4, 2023 Public Hearing: June 6, 2023 On June 6, 2023, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation of the Hotel Cecil & Minton’s Playhouse Building as a New York City Landmark and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 3). The hearing was duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of the law. Two people testified in support of designation, including representatives of the owner and the Historic Districts Council. The Commission also received letters of support for designation from Save Harlem Now! and the New York Landmarks Conservancy. Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 534 Commission Hotel Cecil & Minton’s LP-2671 Playhouse Building 4 of 27 June 27, 2023

Summary Monday nights, when most Manhattan entertainment venues were closed, Minton’s held open jam sessions Hotel Cecil & Minton’s Playhouse Building where such bebop innovators as trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie could drop in and experiment. Gillespie remembered these performances as “wonderfully exciting” and as “seedbeds for our new, modern style of music.” After World War II, bebop peaked in popularity and Minton’s was frequently credited for The Harlem nightclub Minton’s Playhouse flourished playing a significant role. Though leading critics like in the Hotel Cecil for more than three decades in the Ralph Ellison and Le Roi Jones (later Amiri Baraka) middle of the 20th century. Famous for hosting questioned the club’s singular importance, they did important house bands, star headliners, and informal acknowledge Minton’s had been a “rendezvous for jam sessions, it was here that the pivotal jazz style jazz musicians” and that modern jazz had “probably” known as “bebop” emerged in the 1940s, started here. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the transforming American music. From this period club continued to present jazz, including groups led forward, the hotel attracted many noteworthy guests, by, among others, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Erroll including leading jazz, blues, gospel, and soul Gardner, Carmen McCrae, and George Benson. performers. Hotel Cecil was damaged by fire in 197

… (truncated, full text in PDF)