The Algonquin then passed to the Aoki Corporation in 1987, the Camberley Hotel Company in 1997, Miller Global Properties in 2002, and HEI Hospitality in 2005, undergoing a renovation every time it was sold.

[5][6] Prior to the development of the Algonquin Hotel, the neighborhood contained a slaughterhouse, stables for stagecoach horses, and a train yard for the elevated Sixth Avenue Line.

[6] The Pergola contained a mural with outdoor scenes on one wall, as well as wood-paneled columns, which supported a latticework arch with flowers and acorn-shaped light fixtures.

[47] Other performers who have appeared at the Oak Room include Julie Wilson,[50] Mary Cleere Haran,[51] Karen Akers,[52] KT Sullivan,[53] Barbara Carroll,[54] Sandy Stewart and Bill Charlap,[55] Diana Krall,[56] Jessica Molaskey,[57] Jamie Cullum,[58] and John Pizzarelli.

[63] Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune wrote in 1993 that the room's decorations, size, furnishings, and waiters' services evoked "an era when visitors sat back, sipped a drink, listened to music and savored life in an unhurried way".

[81] At the end of the month, the company submitted plans to the New York City Department of Buildings for an unnamed 12-story hotel, to be built on the north side of 44th Street east of Sixth Avenue.

[97] Ultimately, Case took over the day-to-day operations, Albert was assigned the lease and all objects in the hotel, and Ann acquired the building itself (notwithstanding the fact that it had already been sold to the Smiths).

[102] Under Case's management, the Algonquin gained a reputation for hospitality toward struggling authors, actors, and producers, which contributed to the hotel's popularity among theatrical and literary figures.

[103][104] The Toronto Star wrote: "Through the years, the hotel has played an important role in keeping various (literally) starving artists and actors alive until their next job, their future book or Broadway hit.

[120] After the New York Drama Critics' Circle was founded at the Algonquin in 1935, it started hosting annual dinners at the hotel,[121][122] wherein the group voted on the best play of the year.

[126][127] In September 1946, Chemical Bank sold the hotel for $1 million[128][129] to Ben Bodne of Charleston, South Carolina, who acquired the title to the property the next month.

[139][140][141] John Martin, the hotel's general manager of nine years, helped Bodne with the improvements, which included refurbishing all the rooms and adding a refrigeration plant.

[148] In addition, it did not offer gaudy entertainment or host private parties; the only visible symbol of luxury was the dining room's crystal chandelier, which the hotel had bought in the 1930s for $25.

[152][153] Even so, Ward Morehouse III wrote in 1981 that the Algonquin "just never seems to worry about the so-called 'bottom line', or profit picture, despite the fact it is one of the most reasonably priced first-class hotels in the city.

[155][156] The sale came four months after Bodne had publicly denied a rumor that he was considering selling the hotel;[156] he had said that he would relinquish the Algonquin "the day it needed self-service elevators".

[173][174] The bedrooms were small by modern standards, and the Algonquin also had extremely slow elevators, mouse infestations, constant hot-water interruptions, and bad food.

[188][190] Bodne's grandson David Colby pushed for Miller Global executives to revive the hotel's literary traditions, saying: "The Algonquin has greater potential than 100 percent occupancy.

[72][234] Among the Algonquin's early guests were actors Douglas Fairbanks,[88][142] the Barrymore family,[103][142] Beatrice Lillie,[142] Raymond Hitchcock, Mary Pickford, and Elsie Janis.

[142] Luna Park developer Fred Thompson lived on the annex's top story, while impresarios Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. and Diamond Jim Brady frequented the hotel's cafe.

[200] During the 1950s, Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner composed the score of their musical My Fair Lady at the hotel, and Pulitzer Prize for Drama–winning playwrights Mary Chase, William Inge, and Arthur Miller also stayed at the Algonquin.

[135] The New York Herald Tribune wrote in 1962 that the hotel still had many notable guests, including Dana Andrews, Leslie Caron, Charles Chaplin Jr., Barnaby Conrad, Noël Coward, William Faulkner, John Gielgud, Tyrone Guthrie, John Hersey, Eugène Ionesco, Elsa Lanchester, Jack Paar, Christopher Plummer, Jules Romains, and Yuri Zavadsky.

[102] The group originated from a practical joke by theatrical press agent John Peter Toohey, who in June 1919 organized a luncheon to poke fun at drama critic Alexander Woollcott.

[115] Its core members included Dorothy Parker, Franklin P. Adams, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and Harpo Marx,[32][237] as well as Woollcott and Edna Ferber.

[32][238] Playwright George Bernard Shaw, actress Fanny Brice, and composer Irving Berlin were among the many people who vied for invitations to eat lunch with the club.

"[168] A critic for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette expressed a similar sentiment in 2000, saying that the lobby was "still regarded as the place to see and be seen", even though room rates were more expensive than at the neighboring Iroquois.

In 1990, Jerry Hulse wrote for the Los Angeles Times: "In a city dwarfed by glass and chrome, the Algonquin remains an anachronism, a landmark of social well-being.

"[247] Similarly, a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote in 1997: "In a city of wrecking balls and cranes, plate glass and cold chrome, incessant sirens and frenetic foot traffic, the Algonquin remains an island of civility.

Rosalie Earle of the Sunday Gazette-Mail wrote in 2010: "The one-bedroom has a king bed and the living room has a pull-out couch, which makes for comfortable and affordable accommodations, when the tab is divided three ways".

[42] By contrast, a writer for Red Online magazine said the Algonquin "now enjoys a wood-columned, now almost neo-Edwardian finish—incongruous with its central Midtown location, in the heart of theatre land".

[23] The BBC wrote in 2023 that, while the previous year's renovation of the lobby and Blue Bar "may not be to all purists' tastes", the hotel still retained some Roaring Twenties design details like caricatures on the walls.