The blocky, six-story structure at the southwest corner of Broadway and 11th Street has a name—the St. Denis—and two addresses, 80 East 11th Street and 799 Broadway. Completed in 1853, it was a grand hotel when the area around Grace Church was a fancy shopping district. Designed by James Renwick Jr., the St. Denis gave shelter to the likes of Sarah Bernhardt and Buffalo Bill. Ulysses S. Grant used it as headquarters after the Civil War, and Alexander Graham Bell offered the first New York demonstration of the telephone here, in 1877. (An elegant spread in the... More >>>