Bricked-Up Passageway to Hotel

The Knickerbocker Hotel in New York has been closed since 1920. Now, it's being restored. While cleaning out the basement, workers uncovered a bricked-up door, the entrance to a forgotten passageway between the hotel and the Times Square subway station. 

This resolves the mystery surrounding a long-disused door on the subway platform.  It retained its old "Knickerbocker" sign for all those years. Now we know why. 

Subway side view

Hotel side view

This story is a potent link to certain childhood fantasies. As a boy I longed to discover secret passageways, bricked-up doors, hidden staircases and the like. And why not? Adventurous young fellows were always stumbling across such things in Hardy Boys adventures such as The Secret of the Lost Tunnel, The Tower Treasure and The House on the Cliff. Sadly, our house in New Jersey contained none of these hidden mysteries. However, my searches did uncover mysteries of a different sort in my father's sock drawer, including racy James Bond novels, a 1952 Georgia Tech college yearbook and -- most shocking of all -- a marriage manual. 
Links:

• Sneak peek at new Knickerbocker Hotel - New York Post, July 14, 2014
• Behind Subway’s Phantom Hotel Entrance, Neither Arias Nor Opulence - New York Times, July 17, 2014