For Women Only | City Journal
The Social Order For a time, I lived in a women-only hotel—the Brandon, on West 85th Street, which closed in 2017. Women-only hotels are rare today, but cities once abounded with this kind of institution, meant for young women who came to a big city and needed somewhere “respectable” to stay. The Brandon was originally built for the Three Arts Club in 1927. Its opening was reported in the newspapers and supported by the great and good of the city. The library (long gone by the time I lived there) was donated by Frederick Vanderbilt. Single-sex institutions were on the rise at this time,...