Daily News from New York, New York • 258

DAILY NEWS Wednesday, January 1993 2 i Ategend dressed in white 08 tiles Aih i IIs 3 i Iff li- ISt 1 t4TJ' I' si 1 -Mo syg 6 Okay, Waldorf buffs, see if you knew this mixed salad of facts: 1. President Herbert Hoover sent words of congratulation when the hotel opened in 1931, and believed them so much he moved in as a permanent resident in 1933. 2. George Bush lived in the, hotel in 1971-72; it is the official accommodation of all U.S. ambassadors to the United Na-tions.

His stay was subsidized by U.S. taxpay-v ers. 3. Conrad Hilton was so smitten by the hotel that for years he kept a picture' of it under glass on his-desk. He realized his? dream in 1949 when he ac Wins designation as city landmark By OWEN MORtTZ quired, management rights' to the hotel.

4. But Hilton didn't own-the land. The bankrupt Penn-Central Railroad' did. He finally bought it from the railroad for $36 million in 1977. 5.

Twice in its historyi the hotel had to shut down? its Park Avenue entrance. symbolize the nation's fascination with high society and later, mainstream society. The original hotel, an opulent hostelry based on Europe's great ones, was commissioned by millionaire William Waldorf Astor and opened in 1891. Later, his cousin, John Jacob Astor, opened the Astoria Hotel next door. In time, the two hotels were connected by a corridor, hence the Waldorf-Astoria.

The Social Register's 400, which charted what families were in and weren't, was based on who was invited to the Astors' lavish dinner parties and charity balls, and who wasn't Society's belles strutted and preened so much that the area came to be known as Peacock Alley. The current Waldorf continued the tradition, accommodating itself to changing trends in hotel rooms and the tourists who came to visit and stay. On opening day, rug-bearers placed 50 red carpets in front of the main entrance. What started out as the nation's first skyscraper hotel, with 2,200 rooms, was reconfigured to 1,400 units in 1988 when the hotel underwent a $150 million restoration. Symbolic of the times, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians for decades held forth on the Starlight Roof, ushering in the New Year for millions of Americans.

Daily News Urtoan Affairs Editor The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the grande dame of all luxury hotels since 1931, and arguably the nation's most influential, yesterday was designated a city landmark. The action by the Landmarks Preservation Commission means Hilton Hotels which has owned the Waldorf since 1949, cannot alter or demolish the historic facade without city approval. The Hilton has no plans to sell, alter or raze the 61-year-old building, a spokesman said. The designation honors the 42-story Waldorf that opened on Park Ave. and 49th St on Oct 1, 1931 and the Waldorf Towers, the luxurious "hotel-within-a-hotel" that starts at the 28th floor and was home over the years to royalty, diplomats and ex-Presidents.

Among its tenants were former President Herbert Hoover, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the Duke of Windsor and George Bush before he was President. How it began More than its architecture, the current Waldorf-Astoria and the original one that stood at Fifth Ave. and 34th St. it was torn down in 1929 to make way for the Empire State Building came to 4W 1 mm mm: i 1 aT -I mm- i 1 if One was Dec.

12, 1990, fori Frank Sinatra's 75th birthday party. The other was" Iast summer's wedding of the daughter of EMI Re- cords bigwig Charles Kop-; pelman to a lawyer. 6. Every President since McKinley has made a visit 7. During Gen.

Douglas MacArthurS" residence, a 5-star flag flew over Park Ave. 8. At its peak in the 1950s, the hotel was not only the tallest and biggest, but the highest-grossing. 9. The original Waldorf is credited with changing one of the country's most fundamental habits.

Dinner parties, once exclusively held in homes, became a hotel staple. 10. The Waldorf salad was invented there. Owen Moritz If 4 Jf it 4 its fit WALDORF-ASTORIA, designated a landmark yesterday, has been home to world travelers and world leaders at its present location at Park Ave. and 49th St.

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