“For the pleasure and delectation of the people in the one city in the new world, where such luxury and elegance are likely to find appreciation.”
Murray’s Roman Gardens
1908–May 1923
Lobster Palace/Cabaret
Ownership:
M.H. Cox [Listed as Vice President, Christmas 1919]
John L. Murray (1908–August 1917)
Location:
228-242 West 42nd Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues)
Film:
Fine Feathers. Directed by Maurice Elvey. London: London-Diploma, 1915.
Publications:
Macaulay-Lewis, Elizabeth. “Dining like Nero: Antiquity and Immersive Dining Experiences in Early Twentieth-Century New York.” The Classical Outlook 93, 1 (2018): 13-19.
Macaulay-Lewis, Elizabeth. “Ep. 5: Dining like Nero: Murray’s Roman Gardens.” Antiquity in Gotham. Podcast. New York: CUNY, 2018.
Macaulay-Lewis, Elizabeth, and Matthew McGowan, eds. Classical New York: Discovering Greece and Rome in Gotham. New York: Fordham University Press, 2018: 48-49, 55.
Hoefling, Larry J. Nils Thor Granlund: Show Business Entrepreneur and America’s First Radio Star. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2014: 65.
Bloom, Ken. Broadway: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2012: xvi, 360.
Geminder, Emily. “The Disappeared Building.” Observer, May 4, 2010.
“The Magnificent Murray’s Roman Gardens.” Jazz Age Club. Blog, February 19, 2010.
Maurer, Daniel. “From William Grimes’s Appetite City: 25 Restaurants We Wish Still Existed.” Grub Street (New York), June 17, 2009.
Grimes, William. Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York. New York: North Point Press, 2009: 144-146 (illustrated), 159, 166, 179, 181, 199-200, 273, 310.
Whitaker, Jan. “Cabarets and Lobster Palaces.” Restaurant-ing through History. Blog, August 5, 2008.
Stern, Robert A. M., David Fishman, and Jacob Tilove. New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Bicentennial and the Millennium. New York: Monacelli Press, 2006: 665, 675, 699, 705, 1071.
Lankevich, George J. Postcards from Times Square. Garden City, New York: Square One Publishers, 2001: 8, 52, 58, 63, 147.
Malamud, Margaret. “The Imperial Metropolis: Ancient Rome in Turn-of-the-Century New York.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 7, 3 (Winter 2000): 74-77.
Gabrielan, Randall. Times Square and 42nd Street in Vintage Postcards. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2000: 84 (illustrated).
Ginter, Valerian A. “A 42nd Street Building With Oh, What a Past.” New York Times, July 17, 1994: 13.11.
Morris, Lloyd. Incredible New York: High Life and Low Life from 1850 to 1950. New York: Random House, 1951: 332, 336.
Bevington, Charles R. New York Plaisance: An Illustrated Series of New York Places of Amusement, vol. 1. New York: New York Plaisance, 1908.
Erkins, Henry. “Murray’s Roman Gardens.” Architects’ and Builders’ Magazine 8 (1907): 574-579.
Notable Guests:
Diamond Jim Brady (Businessman)
Eugenia Kelly (Socialite)
Damon Runyon (Journalist)
Stanford White (Architect)
Notes:
Considered New York City’s first themed restaurant.
Architect Henry L. Erkins took inspiration from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s popular book, The Last Days of Pompeii, transforming the interior into a ‘Pompeian Garden,’ but other themes ran rampant as well. The façade channeled Paris’s Baroque 1705 Hôtel de Rohan, and room themes included Greek, Gothic, Egyptian, Libyan, and a private ‘Dragon Room’ based on the Imperial Gardens in Peking.
Murray envisioned a waiter-less restaurant, in which guests gave orders upon entering. It is unknown whether this plan was enacted throughout, though dishes were delivered to seats in the Dragon Room via a miniature railroad. Murray and Erkins later put their waiter-less dining room into practice at the Café de l’Opéra, which opened in 1909. (1)
The restaurant featured a 30-foot high marble fountain designed by Stanford White for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Topped by a Roman temple, the fountain was decorated with colorful glass mosaic panels.
Murray’s claimed itself the largest restaurant in the world, with 5,000 seats.
In 1915, Murray’s installed a revolving dance floor. Each rotation around the 30-foot-wide circle took one hour. (2)
Menu:
Christmas 1919 (New York Public Library)
(1) Grimes, 2009.
(2) Jazz Age Club, 2010.
Cover photo: Illustration. From Charles R. Bevington, New York Plaisance: An Illustrated Series of New York Places of Amusement, vol. 1. New York: New York Plaisance, 1908: 50.
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