The sexiest office this city has ever known: the Campbell Apartment, hidden away in the southwest corner of Grand Central Station. It was leased by John Campbell, millionaire financier and original gangsta, from William K. Vanderbilt II in 1923. The office, inspired by a 13th-century Florentine palace, included an enormous faux fireplace where Campbell kept a steel safe (wonder what he had to hide), hand-painted plaster of Paris ceiling, an art collection worth more than $1 million, and “a Persian carpet that took up the entire floor and was said to have cost $300,000 at the time, or roughly $3.5 million today.” A butler named Stackhouse oversaw operations.
Something tells me Mr. Campbell didn’t get a lot of work done in this “office.” Can you imagine the late-night parties he held, fueled by cases of illegal French champagne and elegant little sniffs of, ahem, smelling salts?
After his death in 1957, the Apartment fell into disrepair and over the decades served as a storage closet, signalman’s office, and even a jail.
In 1999, it was renovated and opened as a bar. The cocktails and wine list are lousy but, my, what a view!
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The Great American Cooking Project
Notes from others: