The hotel attracted people such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Washington Irving, and other New York City literary figures and socialites who were first attracted to the hotel as a refuge from an outbreak of cholera. The Pavilion was destroyed by fire on June 25, 1864.
The hotel became a haven for notable writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Washington Irving, along with other prominent literary and high-society figures in New York City, who initially sought solace there to escape a cholera outbreak. The Pavilion was incinerated by fire on June 25, 1864.