historically important all original and completely intact antique american interior new yorker hotel hanging double-sided "elevator" illuminated sign possibly fabricated by the gorham company architectural bronze, new york city, ny. the nicely aged brass sign contains two "milk" glass panels with baked on black enameled lettering. the chain, canopy and rayon cloth cord are all original. the illuminated elevator sign is very well-maintained, considering age. the notable new york hotel lobby sign was removed during renovations. additional artifacts were removed, including the ornamental bronze guest door latch (see image). the new yorker is an extant 43-story art deco hotel that opened 1930 with 1083 rooms located in manhattan's garment district and hell's kitchen areas, near pennsylvania station, madison square garden, times square, and the empire state building. the famous hotel was built by garment center developer mack kanner. when the project was announced in 1928, the sugarman and berger designed building was planned to be 38 stories, at an estimated cost of $8 million. however, when it was completed in 1929, the building had grown to 43 stories, at a final cost of $22.5 million and contained 2,500 rooms, making it the city's largest for many years. hotel management pioneer, ralph hitz, was selected as its first manager, eventually becoming president of the national hotel management company. an early ad for the building boasted that the hotel's "bell boys were 'as snappy-looking as west pointers'" and "that it had a radio in every room with a choice of four stations". it was a new yorker bellboy, johnny roventini, who served as tobacco company philip morris' pitchman for twenty years, making famous their "call for philip morris" advertising campaign. the hotel opened on january 2, 1930. much like its contemporaries, the empire state building (1931) and the chrysler building (1930), the new yorker was designed in the art deco style which was popular in the 1920's and 1930's. in his book, new york 1930, robert a. m. stern said the "new yorker's virtually unornamented facades consisted of alternating vertical bands of warm gray brick and windows, yielding an impression of boldly modeled masses. this was furthered by the deep-cut light courts, which produced a powerful play of light and shade that was enhanced by dramatic lighting at night". in addition to the ballrooms, there were ten private dining "salons" and five restaurants employing 35 master cooks.[5] the barber shop was one of the largest in the world with 42 chairs and 20 manicurists. there were 92 "telephone girls" and 150 laundry staff washing as many as 350,000 pieces daily. throughout the 1940's and 1950's, the hotel was among new york's most fashionable. the new york observer noted that in the building's heyday, "actors, celebrities, athletes, politicians, mobsters, the shady and the luminous—the entire brooklyn dodgers roster during the glory seasons—would stalk the bars and ballrooms, or romp upstairs", it hosted many popular big bands, such as benny goodman and tommy dorsey, while notable figures such as spencer tracy, joan crawford and fidel castro stayed there. inventor nikola tesla spent the last ten years of his life in near-seclusion in suite 3327, where he died, largely devoting his time to feeding pigeons while occasionally meeting dignitaries. measures 14 x 7 inches. measures 2 1/4 inches deep.