NYC Archives and the Cosmopolitan Hotel

I was headed North by car and decided to make a 5 hour pop in to the Municipal Archives at 31 chambers Street in Manhattan. The building is so great - and so peculiar how quiet it is for a city government building. The vital records department is a hive of busy bees, but the rest of the building is without activity. It's odd, really.

I made a hotel reservation yesterday morning and got a pretty good rate - $289 - at the Cosmopolitan Hotel on the corner of Chambers and West Broadway. $45 to park the car over night, though, and dinner, so it adds up. It has occurred to me, however, that I might want to pay to have copies made of the certificates as I sit at home, because even getting them myself, the city must certify them and that's another $11 per copy. Why NYC thinks I need a certified copy of a death certificate for someone who died over 100 years ago, I can't fathom. I bought 10 certificates this afternoon, so another $110 to the cost of my trip.

The hotel is very conveniently located and there are lots of casual - I am only here to get death, birth and marriage certificates, after all - restaurants nearby. The room has a safe, an ironing board, and seems clean. Only one, small elevator, however. If I were on a lower floor that wouldn't hinder me, but the 6th is just high enough to be a pain. But, we have another lovely view from the room, much like at the Wellington Hotel I reviewed earlier. I didn't complain this time.... I got a cheap rate and I was going to be out of the room any way.

I wanted to acknowledge that today is the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Herb's son was the beneficiary of the GI bill, though he was not part of D-Day. He served in the US Navy, though I have done very little research on this subject.