{"id":2978,"date":"2024-01-11T11:03:09","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T16:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/?p=2978"},"modified":"2024-03-28T08:55:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T12:55:02","slug":"the-hotel-bossert-in-the-center-of-brooklyn-the-place-where-the-brooklyn-dodgers-hung-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/eternal\/the-hotel-bossert-in-the-center-of-brooklyn-the-place-where-the-brooklyn-dodgers-hung-out-2978","title":{"rendered":"The Hotel Bossert in the center of Brooklyn, the place where the Brooklyn Dodgers hung out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Bossert was constructed in 1909 as a modern accommodation for both temporary and permanent guests. Advertising brochures at the time lured potential residents with the promise of celebrity neighbors, proximity to Brooklyn steamers, double-filtered drinking water, and even a manicure salon. Read more about the history of the hotel that has become a symbol of Brooklyn at brooklyn1.one<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luxury hotel amenities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The original 1909 hotel was expanded in 1912, adding a dance hall to its lavish amenities, which included 375 rooms accessed through the beautifully decorated lobby and the Palm Room dining area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, it was built by a millionaire Louis Bossert, a lumber magnate from Bushwick. He hired Helmle & Huberty for the project, perhaps because they previously designed another of Bushwick’s luxurious masterpieces, St. Barbara’s Catholic Church. In any case, the Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street served as one of the borough’s social centers. Although not as large or encompassing as the St. George Hotel, the Bossert was undoubtedly the most opulent of Brooklyn’s major apartment hotels. It is a stunning structure with balconies, a magnificent cornice and a number of arched window openings adorned with keystones in the form of a lion’s head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once, the most famous place in the hotel was the Marine Roof, a two-story restaurant and club with breathtaking views of Manhattan. It opened in 1916 and was often booked by Jimmy Walker and Al Smith. It was designed in such a way that it resembled a two-level deck of a ship with 360-degree views of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The marine theme was brought to life. It is not for nothing that the hotel was known as “the Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn”. Marine Roof closed in 1949, although there were attempts to revive it in the 1960s, but they were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Times of Jehovah’s Witnesses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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At that time, the institution was experiencing its golden age. In addition to Brooklyn’s economic growth, one of the reasons was that the hotel served as the unofficial headquarters of the Brooklyn Dodgers, as it housed several players. In 1955, the Dodgers defeated the Yankees in the World Series, and there was a huge celebration in the lobby. So the Dodgers hung out here after the victory over the Yankees. They celebrated by drinking a lot of beer and singing for their coach under the chandeliers in the foyer of the Bossert Hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, from that point forward, things went downhill, and the building was in such disrepair that the ceiling of the Marine Roof collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to another grand hotel in Brooklyn, the equally famed and iconic St. George, the hotel fell into disrepair as the borough’s economy declined. This occurred in the 1960s when the hotel began to serve single-room tenants. It was quite original. Among the hotel’s guests were sailors who came and stayed to live there. However, this only lasted as long as the naval shipyard was actively working. Back then, local kids used to sneak into an abandoned lobby bar and drink with wandering residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Jehovah’s Witnesses added the Bossert<\/a> to their enormous Brooklyn real estate assets in the 1980s, the hotel was in a state of disrepair. The religious group, which once owned approximately $1 billion in property in the neighborhood, including its international headquarters near the Brooklyn Bridge, planned to use the structure to house headquarters staff. It turned out that they were good at property management. Worn window frames were reinforced with handmade mahogany, 2,500 square feet of marble were replaced with Italian stone and the ceiling was plastered over and hand-painted. For their efforts and for their significant contribution to the preservation of architectural monuments, Jehovah’s Witnesses have received at least two awards for the preservation of the Bossert building. One of them was the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revival of the legendary building<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The new owners also promised not to evict any of the 180 tenants, most of whom were elderly people who stayed there to live. Although there were some inconveniences. A loudspeaker was installed in the hotel to broadcast religious messages throughout the building. Therefore, by the end of the 1980s, only 50 tenants remained. In 2010, the Bossert reopened as a hotel, although it was immensely popular among Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were allowed to check in and stay for several nights for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, the Jehovah’s Witnesses brought a genuine sense of community to the hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, as part of their large-scale disposal of Brooklyn real estate, the Jehovah’s Witnesses sold the Bossert to David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit for $81 million. The new owners immediately announced ambitious plans to convert the property into a 280-room boutique hotel. But what about tenants who have lived here and did not intend to leave? The new owners of the property offered residents $30,000 in compensation for giving up their apartments. Despite the fact that the upcoming repairs were expected to take a lengthy time, some refused this offer. As a result, after extensive renovations, the hotel was reopened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bossert was constructed in 1909 as a modern accommodation for both temporary and permanent guests. Advertising brochures at the time lured potential residents with the promise of celebrity neighbors, proximity to Brooklyn steamers, double-filtered drinking water, and even a manicure salon. Read more about the history of the hotel that has become a symbol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":333,"featured_media":2265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1164],"tags":[2239,2238,2235,2234,2236,2231,2233,2232],"motype":[1158],"moformat":[83],"moimportance":[78,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-2978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-advertising-brochures-at-the-time-lured-potential-residents-with-the-promise-of-celebrity-neighbors","9":"tag-double-filtered-drinking-water","10":"tag-luxury-hotel-amenities","11":"tag-most-of-whom-were-elderly-people-who-stayed-there-to-live","12":"tag-proximity-to-brooklyn-steamers","13":"tag-the-hotel-bossert-in-the-center-of-brooklyn","14":"tag-the-new-owners-also-promised-not-to-evict-any-of-the-180-tenants","15":"tag-the-place-where-the-brooklyn-dodgers-hung-out","16":"motype-eternal","17":"moformat-vlasna","18":"moimportance-golovna-novina","19":"moimportance-retranslyacziya-v-agregatori"},"modified_by":"Inna Hananova","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/333"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2980,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2978\/revisions\/2980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2978"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=2978"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=2978"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=2978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}