Two years ago, the Tribeca Grand changed its name to the Roxy, and now the Cosmopolitan Hotel is following suit. As you can see from JP’s photo, below, of the marquee (hidden from street level by plywood), it’s being renamed The Frederick. I wondered whether Frederick might be the name of the forthcoming lobby bar, but a rep confirmed the change, saying it’ll be effective as of September 14. Why, you might ask? I didn’t dig deep, but a 2009 New York Times article on the property—calling it “possibly New York’s oldest hotel structure”—offers a clue:

A print from 1851 at the Museum of the City of New York shows the boarding house to be a four-story red brick structure, its second floor ringed by a lacy, New Orleans-style iron balcony, the windows and cornice with neo-Gothic trim. The neo-Gothic flourished in this period, but survivors are now unusual.

The print bears the legend “Frederick Hotel,” although it appears that nobody but the printmaker knew it by that name. By 1854 it was definitely operating as a hotel, the Girard House.