Hotel Lafayette (New York City)

Hotel Lafayette (formerly Hotel Martin) was a hotel located on University Place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by Raymond Orteig in 1902. The hotel was particularly known for its restaurant, the Café Lafayette, and drew its clientele from New York's French expatriates and the bohemians of Greenwich Village. John Reed described the hotel as "the real link between the old Village and the new, since it was the cradle of artistic life in New York." After Orteig's retirement in 1929, the 65-room hotel and its restaurant were run by his sons until its closure in 1949. The building was demolished in the late 1950s.