A 1919 Apartment House on Broadway That Became an Art Hotel

The Arthouse Hotel at Broadway and 77th Street has been an apartment house, a single room occupancy building, a budget hotel and a Texas chain's first New York outpost. Its 2025 renovation kept the building in charge.

By Chris Force

Travel·October 15, 2026

Broadway between 73rd and 79th streets holds two landmarked apartment houses, the Ansonia of 1904 and the Apthorp of 1908. Between them, at the corner of 77th, stands a plainer 1919 apartment house that has had a harder life. It slid into single room occupancy, reopened in 1991 as the Broadway American, a budget hotel with shared baths and headboards decorated with postcards from the original King Kong, became On the Ave in 1999 and NYLO in 2013, when Stonehill Taylor gutted the lobby for a Texas boutique chain’s first New York address. In 2019 the operator, Highgate, renamed it the Arthouse Hotel. During the pandemic it housed essential workers. A renovation of the rooms and public spaces wrapped in 2025.

No single designer led that renovation. It leaned instead on what was already there: exposed brick, a 1920s fireplace in the library, a 1920s French elevator system, and a run of low, dark rooms off the entry stairs rather than one bright box.

Black steel stairs rise from a hotel entrance toward a lobby with brick walls, curtains and a framed painting. — A short flight of steps leads from the sidewalk up to the lobby landing, past planted urns and black curtains. The Arthouse’s bar, lounge and library all open off this landing. Photo courtesy of Arthouse Hotel.

A hotel library with black leather chesterfield sofas, a fireplace, bookcases and framed artwork on brick walls. — Tufted leather chesterfields face the library fireplace, with glass-fronted bookcases rising to the ceiling. The library is glass-enclosed and can be closed off for private events of up to 50 people. Photo courtesy of Arthouse Hotel.

A short flight of steps rises past planters to a landing where a large abstract canvas hangs above a black steel chest, lit like a gallery wall. The lobby beyond is split into four parts, a bar, a lounge, a library and a check-in desk set toward the back, so the ground floor works as a sequence of rooms instead of a hall. Tufted leather chesterfields face the library fireplace, glass-fronted cases hold books to the ceiling, and the hotel says the walls include original works by Warhol and Basquiat. Off to one side is a smaller alcove with a navy banquette, paneled walls and drum stools, which the hotel books as a private bar.

A large abstract painting in yellow, red and teal hangs on an exposed brick wall above a black chest flanked by two planters. — An abstract canvas hangs on exposed brick above a black steel chest at the top of the entry stairs. The Arthouse lights its paintings like a gallery wall, with evergreen planters on either side. Photo courtesy of Arthouse Hotel.

A navy velvet wingback chair beside a glass-fronted bookcase and a brick wall with a framed blue print. — A navy wingback chair sits beneath a framed print beside the library’s bookcases. The library, lounge and bar run together on the lobby level, which the hotel rents for receptions and after parties. Photo courtesy of Arthouse Hotel.

The bar, with a long zinc counter and trailing greenery overhead, is the social engine. It opens at five, runs live music on select nights, and serves pizzas, boards and sandwiches alongside the cocktail list. Two restaurants fill out the ground floor: RedFarm, the Chinese spot that grew out of the West Village original, and Serafina, the Northern Italian chain.

A small lounge with white paneled walls, a navy banquette, round cocktail tables and black leather drum stools. — The Lounge is a paneled alcove off the lobby with a navy banquette, small cocktail tables and leather drum stools. It has its own private bar and takes groups of up to 30. Photo courtesy of Arthouse Hotel.

A hotel bar with a blue-lit counter, bar stools, small cafe tables and vines hanging from the ceiling. — Cafe tables step up from Arthouse Bar toward the library, under a ceiling strung with greenery. Weekday happy hour runs from 5 to 7, and a sidewalk cafe takes the bar outdoors in warm months. Photo courtesy of Arthouse Hotel.

Upstairs the renovation is more conventional and more disciplined. Rooms run from standard queens to lofts, terrace studios and penthouses on the top floors, 291 keys in all. The new scheme pairs a charcoal textured feature wall with white walls, pale wood floors, a gray upholstered bed, a black-and-white nightstand and a pair of graphic prints above the headboard. It is a formula, and it holds up because the proportions are right and the windows do the rest. Studios on the 14th and 15th floors open onto private terraces with views west to the Hudson or east over the water towers to the twin peaks of the San Remo.

A hotel bedroom with a dark textured accent wall, a gray upholstered bed, white bedding and a black desk with a chair. — The renovated rooms use the same kit throughout: charcoal feature wall, gray upholstered bed, black-and-white nightstand, two prints. Standard queens are about 240 square feet and sit on floors 2 through 12. Photo courtesy of Arthouse Hotel.

A hotel bedroom at dusk with a city view through the window, a gray bed, a desk and a wall-mounted television. — At dusk the window frames the rooftops from an upper-floor king room. Twenty-five of the hotel’s rooms are sold as Broadway View Deluxe Kings, and the studios, lofts and junior suites on the upper floors add terraces or balconies. Photo courtesy of Arthouse Hotel.

The building still has the bones of an apartment house; a few longtime tenants were living on the third floor as recently as the On the Ave years. The Arthouse does not try to be the Bowery or Tribeca. It keeps what it was given, lights its paintings and lets the rooftops do the rest. Five names in, the building has one that describes what hangs inside.