Hotel Theresa ca. 1934

Built by Gustavus Sidenberg, a lace dealer who named the hotel for his late wife before marrying another Theresa, the Hotel Theresa was hailed as a triumphant testament to Harlem's arrival as a self-contained district. It was the tallest Harlem structure of its day, retaining that distinction until 1973, when the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. state office building was erected. The structure's height, together with the stylized sunrise on the façade, symbolized the builder's hopes for all the good things modernity was still to bring to Harlem.

Sidenberg maintained a strict policy that excluded black people, except as servants. Many other hotels, theaters, and department stores discriminated against blacks during the years now celebrated as the Harlem Renaissance. Not until 1937, nearly twenty years after African Americans came to dominate Harlem's population, was this discriminatory policy rescinded at the Hotel Theresa. New black owners welcomed boxer Joe Louis, singer and actress Lena Horne, and dancer and singer Josephine Baker, as well as Cuban premiere Fidel Castro. Senator John F. Kennedy would choose the Hotel Theresa as his forum when he asked Harlem blacks for their support, and Malcolm X would form the Organization of Afro-American Unity in the top floor's double-height dining room.