It ignited a debate in the press concerning the ability of the available technology to put out fires in high-rise buildings.

High relief carved limestone panels by Karl Bitter from the Vanderbilt's porte-cochere[12] and ornamental frieze roundels from that mansion were installed in the Sherry's classicizing groin-vaulted lobby, where massive marble-veneered pilasters with gilded Italian Renaissance capitals articulate walls paneled in small rectangles, Jacobean-fashion.

[13] Because of Prohibition, the Sherry was designed with smaller public restaurant square footage than other pre-war hotels.

In 1940, the famous stock trader Jesse Livermore committed suicide in the cloakroom of the hotel.

[15] When the New York City Landmarks Commission created the Upper East Side Historic District on May 19, 1981, the Sherry-Netherland was included within its boundaries.