“The Amherst Hotel is a mid-sized five-story older building on the corner of 8th Avenue and 44th Street in Manhattan, two short blocks from Times Square, in a quiet business district.”
The Amherst Hotel in New York was where Starkweather and Moore set up their temporary headquarters as the expedition readied for departure, renting out the 4th and 5th floors. Seeing as I live in New York, I made it my business to go there and walk around the neighborhood (as well as walk the distance down to Pier 74, to get a good feeling for how far away it is from the hotel; about 23 minutes as it were).