Top of the Tower (Beekman Tower)

The Beekman Tower was built for the Panhellenic Association as a club and hotel for women in college sororities¹. In 1940 its solarium became a bar called Top of the Tower¹, and in 1959 the bar grew by enclosing the balconies around it¹. It became a favorite of Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and Frank Zappa².

The building was designated a city landmark in 1998¹. Our listing said the views made all other considerations a distant second, and in 2010 Time Out called it one of the few places left to have dinner with a bird's-eye view of the East River or the city³.

In 2013 the hotel was sold to Silverstein Properties¹. The bar went dark, though accounts of when differ: one says 2013, another that it sat closed for about a decade before it reopened in 2018^{1, 2}.

Merchants Hospitality and Public Agenda reopened the space as Ophelia in February 2018². By 2022 the hotel was running as The Beekman Tower, Trademark Collection by Wyndham¹, which lists Ophelia as its rooftop bar⁴, and Ophelia's own site is advertising an autumn season of cocktails and skyline views⁵.