Collapse of Broadway Central Hotel, Manhattan 1973

A dramatic color photograph capturing the collapse of the Broadway Central Hotel on August 3, 1973, at its location on Broadway near West Third Street in Manhattan, New York City. The site was once the 19th-century Grand Central Hotel, a lavish Second Empire–style landmark later renamed the Broadway Central Hotel. The building had deteriorated by the 1970s into the University Hotel, housing hundreds of residents and, on its lower floors, the influential arts venue known as the Mercer Arts Center.

On the afternoon of August 3, after visible structural distress and groaning walls throughout the day, a section of the Broadway facade suddenly gave way in a cloud of brick and plaster, spilling debris onto the street below. Four residents were killed and at least a dozen others were injured in the collapse, which occurred shortly before scheduled evening performances at the Mercer Arts Center — a space that narrowly avoided greater tragedy because shows had not yet begun. The remains of the hotel were later cleared, and the site was redeveloped; today it is occupied by a New York University law school dormitory.