A Hotel Near Bryant Park, NYC: What's on Our Walk to the Park

How close are we to Bryant Park?

Close enough that the park becomes part of your day rather than a trip you plan. We're at 24 East 39th Street, between Park and Madison. Walk west on 39th, cross Madison, turn right on Fifth Avenue, and the park begins at 40th Street. You're steps from Bryant Park.

The park itself runs from 40th to 42nd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It's 9.6 acres, open all year, and named for William Cullen Bryant, the poet and newspaper editor. The 42nd Street-Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue subway station sits on its north edge if you're heading further uptown or across town.

What's actually in the park

A lawn, a carousel, an outdoor reading room and public restrooms, which in Midtown counts as a real amenity. Our take: the carousel is for kids, the reading room is for everyone else. Pick up a book, take one of the movable chairs, and you have the quietest half hour Midtown offers for free.

In winter the lawn turns into the Bank of America Winter Village, with a skating rink and rows of holiday shops. Dates move every year, so check bryantpark.org before you build a plan around it. We'll have more on that closer to the season.

The library on the park's Fifth Avenue side

The New York Public Library's main branch, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, is the Beaux-Arts building at 476 Fifth Avenue that backs onto the park. It opened to the public on May 23, 1911, designed by Carrère and Hastings, the same firm credited with the park's design.

Go for the third floor. The Rose Main Reading Room and the Public Catalog Room were designated city interior landmarks in 2017, and Astor Hall and the McGraw Rotunda on the way up were landmarked in 1974. It's a working research library, so keep your voice down and check nypl.org for hours before you walk over. From our door it's the same route as the park: west on 39th, right on Fifth.

Grand Central, the other direction

Grand Central is a few minutes on foot from us, east toward Park Avenue and north. Underneath it is the Grand Central-42nd Street subway station, the stop the Morgan lists for its own visitors and the one we'd point you to for most trips out of the neighborhood.

If you're flying in, LaGuardia is about 30 minutes out and JFK a little further. Ask us and we can arrange a flat-rate transfer, which is easier than working out the trains with luggage.

The Morgan, three blocks south

The Morgan Library & Museum is at 225 Madison Avenue at East 36th Street, three blocks down Madison from our corner. It began as J. P. Morgan's private library and became a public institution in 1924. The main building is by Charles Follen McKim, and the newer entrance and expansion are by Renzo Piano with Beyer Blinder Belle. The collection runs to roughly 350,000 items: manuscripts, letters, music, books and drawings.

It's our favorite pairing with a Bryant Park morning. Start at the park, cut through the library, then walk down Madison to the Morgan. You'll be back at our door without having taken a single train.

What you come back to

We're 33 suites in a 1920s building that was once a Williams College social club. Each suite was designed with the Chelsea artist William Engel, and no two repeat. Select studios keep a kitchenette: the King Studio has a two-burner cooktop, toaster, cookware, plates and mugs, plus a Smart TV with Roku, a coffee machine and a mini-fridge. Laundry is on site.

What we don't have matters just as much. There's no big gym and no restaurant beyond the bar. The Raines Law Room is on our ground floor, with its own door on 39th: Monday to Thursday 5pm to midnight, Friday 5pm to 2am, Saturday 4pm to 2am, closed Sunday. The Raines Law Room does craft cocktails right, one at a time, with small plates as long as the bar is open.

This is New York, made residential: a park to the west, a train station to the east, a library in between, and a suite to come back to.

Quick reference: walking from our door