Hotel Beacon
The Hotel Midway, now 24 stories high, would be fireproof, featuring every modern improvement such as serving pantries, electric refrigeration, baths and showers, and would tower over all the immediate structures in the neighborhood including the Ansonia.Built by the Sperry Gyroscope Company and installed on a high steel tower on the roof,[10] the five foot in diameter, 1.2 billion candles in power, airway beacon is officially lit by Clarence D. Chamberlin, transatlantic flier and the city's airport engineer, at 10 pm on July 12, 1928 to christen the building.In an elaborate ceremony, Lieutenant Orville Stephens from the Army Reserve Air Corps flies a plane in a storm, above New York City harbor and lower Brooklyn to Flatbush, then passing directly over the light, while Chamberlin is giving the dedicatory address.Following the christening of the building in July 1928 and under the leadership of its first General Manager, Gus Shult, leasing at the Hotel Beacon seems to be off to an auspicious start.He then purchased the Ben Hur Restaurant on City Island, which he operated for several years before going back to the hotel business as Manager of the Beacon.