Pennsylvania 6–5000

A closer look before it's lost:

Built in 1919 by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the Hotel Pennsylvania was the largest hotel in the world at the time of it's opening. The hotel was designed by the prominent architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, which also completed landmark properties such as the original Pennsylvania Railroad Station, the Pierpont Morgan Library, Columbia University and the United States Post Office Building on Eighth Ave.

Hotel Pennsylvania hosted numerous presidential visits. It has 22 floors and the original penthouse spanned 3 floors. Originally there were 2,200 bathrooms, 3,537 beds and the world's first high–rise elevator system. Underground passages connected the hotel to Pennsylvania Station so guests arriving by rail avoided any exposure to inclement weather.

Upon opening, the rate for a single room was $3.50 per night (about $48 in today’s currency, adjusted for inflation). Today, Hotel Pennsylvania remains the fourth largest hotel in Manhattan, with 1,700 available rooms.

New York's Hotel Pennsylvania has kept the same telephone number since 1919, which was immortalized in the 1938 Glenn Miller hit "PEnnsylvania 6–5000." This is New York's, and perhaps the World’s longest continually used telephone number.

(if you’re rusty on old-style exchange names)

(HotelPenn.com)