Yisroel ‘Randy’ Settenbrino, Brooklyn-born, Clifton resident, and developer of the Blue Moon Hotel in New York City, is on a very important mission. He is campaigning to save the hotel. First opened in 2006, the Blue Moon Hotel is located on 100 Orchard Street, the Bicentennial Block, across the street from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. The Blue Moon Hotel is the second oldest building after the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street. It is housed in an historic, beautifully restored eight-story brick tenement building—Settenbrino added three of the floors—that was built in 1879. The hotel gives guests the feeling of the 19th century and the neighborhood’s Jewish history as home to working-class immigrants.
Settenbrino, Manhattan artist-as-architect, created the Blue Moon Hotel in a five-year labor of love, art and historical preservation project. The project was not planned in an architectural vein, but done with a fount of inspiration. No detail went without being considered, making it very different than an architectural project. The artifacts in the hotel are strategically intertwined with contemporary materials. They are there to remind us of our humanity, in that each and every artifact was touched by another human being. The tenement is Settenbrino’s “easel,” a “brick-and-mortar” foray to keep the living history of old New York as vibrant today as it was then.
Settenbrino has honored the vestiges of the tenement itself, and also paid homage to a particular era, The Jazz Age. The hotel’s 22 oversized, luxurious rooms are each named after a celebrity from that time period, the 1920s and 1930s. For example, rooms are named for Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, Mickey Katz, Molly Picon, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson, Benny Goodman and Sophie Tucker. Each room has its own unique decor, layout and feel, in keeping with the Blue Moon’s historical theme. All rooms have kitchenettes, and many have a balcony. All 22 guest rooms feature a mezuzah affixed to their doorposts.
Settenbrino has saved and warehoused original artifacts and integrated them into the Blue Moon Hotel to depict themes of family, children, society and history in New York. Framed 19th-century mementos, such as the 14 collages made from newspaper clippings underlined with Green Stamps from anonymous merchants, as well as personal effects of the tenement dwellers found in the hotel, now hang on the lobby walls. There are old stoves, poker chips and homework from the early 1900s that Settenbrino lovingly preserved. The elevator has pressed-tin walls repurposed from the back of the original staircases. Doors, spindles, wainscotting, marble and wood fireplace mantles, original to the tenement, decorate the building.
Every single artifact was thoughtfully encased in contemporary materials, and the colors were chosen to bring comfort, to soothe and to harmonize and work together. While it appears as if props are everywhere, everything is authentic. The Blue Moon Hotel is more like a museum than a hotel.
Settenbrino has devoted 23 years of his life to retaining the tenement building and transforming it into the award-winning Blue Moon Hotel, which has been featured in dozens of media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and has won several coveted awards, including the National Geographic Traveler Award. The building was designed by German immigrant Julius Boekell, a talented and prolific designer.
100 Orchard Street is a landmark, and the Blue Moon Hotel has become a neighborhood icon. The Settenbrino family has dedicated all of their time, money and energy to the Blue Moon Hotel as a labor of love and a spiritual journey.
Settenbrino has also been there for the community, providing chesed. He donated space in the hotel for seven years to Rabbi Yisroel Stone’s Chabad of the Lower East Side. Through the years, the Settenbrino family did mitzvot for L’Shem and ran functions for Aish and ALEPH for their special occasions. Settenbrino’s motto, “God, family and country” reflects in all that he does.
And now, the Settenbrino family is seeking to give the Blue Moon Hotel a resurgence. Settenbrino loves the Lower East Side, its people, their lives and history. They received no grants or public contributions when restoring the building.
The Blue Moon Hotel, the Settenbrino family’s only asset, is still strained by the initial overwhelming outlay to restore the building. The inordinate amount of time, coupled with the annual taxes and expenses compelled the owners to lease to a hostel, and over the past five years the management companies disassembled and disposed of many fixtures and artifacts of the original renovation. Then the pandemic sideswiped the Settenbrino family and they were left virtually penniless.
“It was like a near-death experience,” Settenbrino said. But he loves the building more than money. Giving this beautiful historical building a second life was a huge undertaking akin to a public works project. “Everything has a soul,” he said, “and this building certainly encompasses all the people who lived here through the generations.” And so against all odds, the entire Settenbrino family is helping to rebuild the Blue Moon Hotel and prevent escalating taxes and foreclosure.
The Settenbrinos are now looking to their community to help preserve their small business and their significant historical restoration on 100 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side. If you love art, history, philosophy, the story of humanity, what the Blue Moon Hotel brings to the community, please visit their GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/00af773a, where you can see photographs showcasing both the beginnings through the hotel’s first life.
To see the work Settenbrino has undertaken to give the Blue Moon Hotel a second life, please check out: https://youtu.be/HO9qqVUEn2c featuring an interview he did recently, showcasing the workmanship at this juncture, as well as offering the history of his original project. Contact him at [email protected] or (646) 334-1603.
Susan R. Eisenstein is a longtime Jewish educator, passionate about creating special, innovative activities for her students. She is also passionate about writing about Jewish topics and writing about Israel. Susan has two master’s degrees and a doctorate in education from Columbia University.
