Pop Music Haven at the Hotel Albert 

Standing at the corner of University Place and East 11th Street is Greenwich Village’s historic Hotel Albert, a conglomeration of four buildings built in stages between 1875 and 1924, part of which started off as an apartment complex for respectable clientele and an early example of the then-revolutionary residential concept known as French flats. By the turn of the 20th century, the hotel became better known as a home for artists and writers, per the National Register of Historic Places’ designation report, especially after World War II, as “the hotel fell on hard times and gradually decayed.” Residents over the years included Hart Crane, Richard Wright, Anaïs Nin, Diane di Prima, Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka, and Samuel Delany.

By the early 1960s, the hotel was known as a fleabag, recalled Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas, who moved there in 1963 with husband John Phillips. Yet that state of decay drew in musicians from all strata and genres, producing some of the most relevant songs of that decade and the next. Many of those stars used the Albert’s basement for rehearsals and impromptu jam sessions; as The Rock Encyclopedia author Lillian Roxon wrote, “The basement became a shrine; and no musician feels he’s a musician unless he’s stayed at the Albert and rehearsed among the pools of water and the cockroaches.” 

“California Dreamin’,” for example, was a hit for the Mamas and the Papas born at the Albert. John and Michelle Phillips’ long, sometimes bone-chilling walks in a gray Manhattan winter and a late-night writing session in their room helped seed the pop classic. Other formative songwriting moments included The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe in Magic” and Tim Buckley’s “Buzzin’ Fly.” Among other musicians who spent time at the Albert were the Mothers of Invention, Jim Morrison, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Edmonton, Barry Goldberg, Gary Higgins, Howlin’ Wolf, The Cockettes, Jonathan Richman, Otis Smith, and Don Stevenson. 

Few stories capture the Albert’s rough-and-ready energy in those days like singer/songwriter James Taylor’s. Before his breakthrough, Taylor and bassist Zack Wiesner holed up on a fire-scarred floor at the Albert, rehearsing with the Flying Machine downstairs and gigging at the Night Owl Café around the corner. Those gritty months — sleep, practice, play, repeat — were part of the apprenticeship that shaped Taylor and his circle, including friends Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon, who were threading their own paths through the local folk-rock scene.

Today the Hotel Albert is a co-op building, one that has earned a listing on the State and National Register of Historic Places but has yet to receive the recognition and protection of New York City landmark designation. The Albert also stands almost in the heart of South of Union Square, a proposed historic district that Village Preservation has been campaigning to enact with the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Learn more about and lend your voice to the effort here.