Hotel Elysee — New York, NY, United States
About Hotel Elysee
Tennessee Williams lived there for the last fifteen years of his life, working through the night; guests reportedly complained about the sound of his typing in the small hours, and the hotel solved it by moving other guests farther from his suite. He wrote his final play, A House Not Meant to Stand , right there. He died in his now namesake suite in 1983, choking on a bottle cap he had a habit of balancing on his mouth while using eye drops (Williams was under the influence at the time). Today, the Sunset Suite is named in his honor, and the hotel also keeps a "Tennessee Williams Presidential Suite" with about 900 square feet of living space filled with memorabilia of the playwright.
Literary significance
Today, the hotel is part of a small collection of NYC properties deemed the "literary hotel collection" and retains different themed rooms today. After World War II, the owner's children redecorated each room in its own distinctive style rather than a uniform hotel look, so rooms have individual character. It also has named suites tied to specific people: the Sunset Suite (Tennessee Williams's former suite, where he died), the Sayonara Suite (Brando's, named for the film he was shooting), and a dedicated Tennessee Williams Presidential Suite — about 900 square feet, distinct from the room he actually lived in. It's kept its "Old World elegance" and quirky, non-uniform decor since the postwar renovation, and reviews still describe it as retaining the "old world charm" of its French country roots despite recent updates. The Tennessee Williams suite displays memorabilia connected to him, a…
Authors
Location
60 East 54th St, New York, NY 10022, United States