Hotel Lincoln (Eighth Avenue)

Hotel on Eighth Avenue at 44th Street, Manhattan, later the Milford Plaza and now the Row NYC. In Tom Hanks’s ‘The Past Is Important to Us’ room 1114 is the time travellers’ portal to 1939.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Uncommon Type	Tom Hanks	setting	In ‘The Past Is Important to Us’ Chronometric Adventures occupies floors 9 to 13 of the building that was once the Hotel Lincoln,…

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Uncommon Type — Tom Hanks (2017)

Source: Uncommon Type · Original · Readwise highlight

Bert exited the car at the building that had been, in reverse order, the Milford Plaza, the Royal Manhattan Hotel, and, in 1939, the Hotel Lincoln.

• Role: setting
• In the book: In ‘The Past Is Important to Us’ Chronometric Adventures occupies floors 9 to 13 of the building that was once the Hotel Lincoln, because room 1114 escaped every remodel. Bert starts and ends each 22-hour visit to June 1939 there, and is told there that he has reached his limit of trips.
• Why it matters: The room’s unchanged dimensions make the time travel possible, and the 7:00 p.m. return deadline there drives the story’s tension.