The newly redecorated Dior Suite is seen in New York’s St. Regis Hotel, Wednesday, March 14, 2012. A century after the Titanic sank, the legacy of the ship’s wealthiest and most famous passenger, John Jacob Astor, quietly lives on at the luxury hotel he built in New York City. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)MEGHAN BARR, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) – A century after the Titanic sank, the legacy of the ship’s wealthiest and most famous passenger lives on quietly at the luxury hotel he built in New York City.
John Jacob Astor IV, who was one of the richest men in America, went down with the ship in 1912 after helping his pregnant wife escape into the last lifeboat. But at the St. Regis, one of Manhattan’s oldest luxury hotels, the aristocratic sensibilities of the Gilded Age remain intact. Butlers in white ties and black tailcoats still roam the hallways. The lobby, with its frescoed ceiling and elaborate marble staircase, has not been altered since Astor died. And the thousands of leather-bound books that he collected have been preserved on the same bookshelves for 100 years.
This year, in tribute to Astor’s memory, the hotel worked with a publisher to add a new book to those shelves. “A Survivor’s Tale,” which was released this month, is the first-person account of a passenger who survived the disaster by jumping overboard as the ship disappeared into the water.
“This was his jewel,” said Astor’s granddaughter, Jackie Drexel, as she gazed around the hotel one recent morning. “My grandfather used to come and walk the stairs frequently first thing in the morning to make sure everything was running perfectly. He conceived of it with great pride.”