Lowell Hotel

A 1920s Townhouse Dressed as an English Country House

The Lowell occupies a landmark 1920s building at 28 East 63rd Street, and the lobby sets the tone immediately: Art Deco marble floors, velvet curtains and French Empire-style furniture, with none of the glass-and-steel formality of a newer Manhattan tower. Upstairs, the 72 rooms and suites lean into an English country-house mood instead, mixing English prints, floral fabrics and Chinese porcelain with antiques and original artwork in every room. Crown moulding and other traditional details give the place a homey feel that is unusual this close to Fifth Avenue.

Why It Works

We chose the Lowell for a combination that is hard to find in Manhattan at any price: real architectural pedigree, individually decorated rooms rather than a repeated template, and a scale small enough that the concierge desk, which fields requests in at least nine languages, still knows its guests. Wood-burning fireplaces and a handful of ivy-laced private terraces push the property further from the standard luxury-hotel script, and a 9.8-out-of-10 score across its reviews backs up the feel on arrival. Forbes Travel Guide rates it a Four-Star property, a formal recognition of a style that otherwise reads as simply personal rather than corporate.

Why This Location

East 63rd Street sits on the Upper East Side, an easy walk from Central Park and the Madison Avenue boutiques, and close to the museum mile that runs up Fifth Avenue. It is a quieter, more residential pocket of Manhattan than Midtown, which suits a hotel built to feel like a private house rather than a hub. Shopping on Madison Avenue, gallery-hopping toward the museum mile or an early loop of the park are all reachable on foot, which matters on a stay built around not needing a car or a cab.

Fast Facts

• Price: €€€€ (Luxury)

• Vibe: English country house inside a 1920s Manhattan townhouse

• Chambres: 72 rooms and suites, individually decorated

• Best For: travellers wanting Fifth Avenue proximity with townhouse scale and quiet

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: wood-burning fireplaces in a Manhattan hotel room, a genuine rarity

• Dining: Majorelle (French-Mediterranean), The Pembroke Room (breakfast, brunch, afternoon tea), Post House (steakhouse), Jacques Bar

• Amenities: antiques and original art in every room, ivy-trailed private terraces on select suites, concierge fluent in at least nine languages

• Attractions: Central Park, Madison Avenue boutiques, Upper East Side museum mile

Fireplaces, Terraces and Rooms Decorated One at a Time

No two rooms at the Lowell are furnished alike, which is the point: antiques, original artwork and English prints are chosen room by room rather than rolled out from a single design template. The Hollywood Suite leans into the hotel's 1930s silver-screen era with photographs of the period's glamorous leading ladies, while other suites keep their wood-burning fireplaces lit through the colder months, a detail almost no other Manhattan hotel can offer. A few suites add private terraces laced in ivy, turning a New York stay into something closer to borrowing a well-kept townhouse for a few nights.

Four Kitchens Under One Roof

The ground floor functions almost like its own small neighbourhood: Majorelle serves French classics with Mediterranean touches for dinner, the Pembroke Room handles breakfast, weekend brunch and a proper afternoon tea, Post House covers a clubby steakhouse dinner, and Jacques Bar stays open for cocktails and bar bites. Between the four, a guest can eat well for days without stepping outside, though Madison Avenue and the park are close enough that most won't want to. Jacques Bar in particular works as a low-key alternative to the louder hotel bars nearby, the kind of room where a nightcap does not require shouting over a DJ.