Barclay. Development As part of the construction of Grand Central Terminal, the New York Central started planning a hotel on the city block bounded by Madison Avenue, 44th Street, Vanderbilt Avenue, and 43rd Street. It was to be one of two hotels adjacent to the terminal; there would be another hotel on Lexington Avenue to the east. The New York Central formally announced plans for the 23-story Biltmore Hotel on Madison Avenue in February 1912; the railroad wanted to maximize usage of the site, which was largely occupied by the new terminal's railroad tracks. The hotel was to be named after the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, itself named for the last syllable of the Vanderbilt family's name. the hotel would be developed by the New York Central and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The New York State Realty and Terminal Company, a division of the New York Central, leased the hotel to Gustav Baumann, operator of the Holland House hotel. In March 1912, Warren and Wetmore filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings for the 26-story hotel, which was projected to cost $4.5 million. Baumann hired John McEntee Bowman that May to manage the hotel, and Bowman supervised the Biltmore's development. Baumann ordered $1 million of furniture from W. & J. Sloane, and $800,000 of silverware from the Gorham Manufacturing Company, in mid-1912. The New-York Tribune described the latter contract as "one of the largest ever placed for hotel silverware". That July, the New York Central awarded the Fuller Construction Company a $5.5 million general contract for the hotel's construction; at the time, it was expected that the hotel would be completed by the beginning of October 1913. In addition, the American Bridge Company was hired to manufacture of structural steel for the hotel. By the end of that year, workers were completing excavations on the hotel's site. The Biltmore's construction started in March 1913, and the hotel's structural steel was topped out on August 15, 1913. The construction of the hotel coincided with the completion of Grand Central Terminal's final phase. The Biltmore was scheduled to open with a party on New Year's Eve 1913, and every table in the hotel's main dining room was reserved in advance of the opening. In the two weeks before the hotel opened, the project employed 1,300 construction workers, who worked 24 hours a day to