50 Years Ago Today: The Collapse of the University Hotel and The Mercer Arts Center

The New York Daily News photo above was taken at the moment the building that housed the Mercer Arts Center collapsed on August 3rd, 1973. I first heard of the incident from researching my obit for George Ferencz a couple of years ago. Amazingly George had cheated death that day a half century ago, had been in the building earlier in the day and was due to return that evening for a performance.

The center was located in a 103 year old hotel with frontage on Broadway, Mercer Street, and West 3rd. Originally known as the Grand Central Hotel, it opened in 1870, and reflected the ornate Second Empire style of its day. Big things happened there: financier Jim Fiske was murdered in his room in 1872. MLB’s National League was founded there in 1876. It was renamed the Broadway Central Hotel in 1892.

By 1969 it had fallen on hard times and became a welfare hotel, named the University for its proximity to NYU. Two years later Art D’Lugoff, owner of The Village Gate, opened the Mercer Arts Center on two of its floors, in a former ballroom and catering area. It had six theatre spaces, including the “Hansberry” and the “Brecht“, as well as rehearsal rooms. Rip Torn, Gene Frankel, and the Vasulkas, Woody and Steina, founders of The Kitchen, were among the principal artists who made it their base. Rock bands like The New York Dolls and The Modern Lovers played there.

The heyday did not last long. Early in 1973, following some work in the basement, the building started to show alarming signs of fatigue, such as cracks and bulges in the walls. By the morning of August 3, it had started to make terrifying noises, loud creaks and moans. People were aware of it and concerned, but there was no time to take any kind of action to assess and address the situation. Shortly after 5pm, pieces started to tumble off the building, and then the whole thing gave way. If it had happened just a couple of hours later, the theatres might have been full of audiences for that evening’s performances. As it happens, four of the hotel residents were killed and several others were injured.

In 2016, the event was dramatized on the tv show Vinyl. Today the former location of The University Hotel and The Mercer Arts Center is the site of an NYU dorm.