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Hotel life and travel

Hotel letterheads have given me a real sense of the "Gilded Age" as the images on hotel stationery get larger and more opulent, particularly in the 1890's.   The frequency of "absolutely fire proof"  (Note the 1890 Nadeauin Los Angeles "practically fireproof") is a reminder of how often theatres and hotels burned down.  However few 19th century hotels survive -- even the ones still here, such as the Palmer House in Chicago and Williard in Washington DC are not the same buildings.  What is also obvious is that EJ Phillip's companies usually stayed in the best hotels in town. In the last two decades, there has been an uprising...of splendid hotels, as well as an enlarging and beautifying of those already built...The list includes the Hollenden Hotel, as well as the Narragansett in Providence, the Iroquois in Buffalo, the Russell in Detroit, the Plankinton in Milwaukee, the Coates House in Kansas City, the Portland in Portland, Oregon and the Tacoma in Tacoma, Washington." [Depew1895]   All of these were hotels EJ Phillips stayed at -- and wrote letters from -- and were the newest and most luxurious hotels in town.  
Railroads  Money  The strenuous business of travel

Hotels  Atlanta  Baltimore   Boston  Buffalo   Chicago  Cincinnati   Cleveland  Denver   Detroit   Kansas City   Los Angeles  Milwaukee   Montreal  New York    Niagara Falls    Omaha  Pittsburgh   Portland  Saint Louis   Salt Lake City  San Francisco   Seattle  Syracuse   Tacoma  Toronto    Vancouver  Washington DC

Albany, New York
Delevan house 
Montreal, Jan 1, 1895 See by today's paper that the Delevan House in Albany was burned last night.  I have stopped there many times. 

E.C. Delevan erected the hotel in 1844 at a cost of over half a million dollars. It burned down in 1894 and the site was used to build Union Station.   http://www.gendisasters.com/data1/ny/fires/albany-delavanhouse1894.htm
 
Edward Cornelius Delevan was a wealthy individual. He financed NYS Temperance Union. Built Delevan House Hotel in Albany. Known to have sent support to Anti-Slavery Kansas settlers.  New Yorkers active in the Underground Railway, New York History Nethttp://www.nyhistory.com/ugrr/people.htm   DAB look up

In 1845 he [EC Delevan] established one of the first temperance hotels, Delavan House in Albany, which became a favorite resort for abstinent legislators. The hotel, however, lost money, and, much to Delavan's annoyance, the manager used a loophole in the lease to introduce liquor.http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/d/ecdelavananb.html 

Born near Maidstone in Kent on June 24th 1815 the first Woollett apparently emigrated in 1834. He first appears in an Albany directory in 1845 when he listed himself as William L. Woollett Jr., Architect of the Delevan House. The Delevan House, a massive classically inspired hotel which covered a full block on Broadway, on the current site of Union Station, is also attributed to another local architect, J.W. Adams, in the 1845 Albany City Guide. As a young man and newcomer to Albany it seems likely that Woollett worked under Adams for this major commission. The Delavan House burned to the ground, with much death and devastation, when filled to capacity on New Years Eve in 1894. Like the Delavan House, many of Woollett's buildings have been lost in the course of the past century. His best known surviving works - Our Lady of Angels R.C. Church(1869), Emmanuel Baptist Church (1868-71), and a delightful picturesque English Gothic chapel (or schoolhouse according to one source) added in 1866 to the Church of the Holy Innocents - date from the period of his partnership with Edward Ogden from 1856 to 1870.  http://www.woolletthistory.co.uk/main/usawool.htm 

Atlanta
Hotel Aragon1897
Chas. F. Dodge, Mgr. Open all the year Cable address "Aragon Atlanta"

Peachtree Street from Hotel Aragon, 1895 http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/meta/html/gsu/oneal/meta_gsu_oneal_154.html?Welcome  Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates at the Aragon as $2.50 and $2.
Opened 1892, Corner of Peachtree and Ellis, demolished 1930 to make room for the Collier Building  postcard 1910  http://www.oldplaces.org/vintage_images/ga_atlanta_2.html   
Photo, Southeast Corner Peachtree and Ellishttp://www.atlantatimemachine.com/downtown/aragon.htm
The Hotel Aragon stood on the northwest corner of the block now occupied by the Georgia Pacific Tower.

Baltimore
The Eutaw  1891 1892
Sylvanus Stokes, Proprietor

http://www.mdhs.org/digitalimage/baltimore-buildings-eutaw-house 

the Eutaw House, a large and fashionable hotel built on the northwest corner of Eutaw and Baltimore Streets https://19thcenturybaltimore.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/stereoview-of-the-eutaw-house-by-william-m-chase/

Mt. Vernon Hotel 1894
Monument Street West, FH Nunns, Manager

105 West Monument St, built 1859, opened as the Mt Vernon Hotel in 1867. "Its rooms could accommodate 75 guests; single rooms rented for $1 a night and suites rented for $10. It is reported to have been one of the leading hotels of the day. Acclaimed actor Edwin Booth - brother of John Wilkes Booth - stayed here when he was performing in Baltimore." The hotel closed in 1994 and was sold. "currently the headquarters of The Oxford Club, LLC   Photo and historyhttp://www.panoramio.com/photo/96885010

Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates at the Eutaw as $1.00 and up and at the Mt. Vernon as $2.00 and up. 

Binghamton

Boston
We may first note a few of the hotels which were making history in Boston. One of the oldest of these, then modern, hostelries is the United States Hotel at Beach and Lincoln Streets. It was built in 1824, when it was regarded as an enormous structure, and certainly the largest hotel in the city. It has been enlarged several times until it covers two acres. In its early days it was the favorite stopping place for celebrities visiting The Hub. Nineteenth Century Hotels in the United States, Antiques Digest, orig. published 1927http://www.oldandsold.com/articles25/hotels-12.shtml 

King's Dictionary of Boston (1883) says the United States Hotel is "one of the oldest of the established hotels of the city, and one of the best, enjoying an excellent reputation in every respect. Its seal dates back to 1826".  It was on Beach Street, between Lincoln and Kingston, in  the Leather District on the edge of what is now Chinatown.  In 1883 it took up the entire block and was three [or four]  stories high.  Daniel Webster lived there at one time, and Charles Sumner entertained Dickens there.

US Hotel, 1886

Tilly Haynes was the proprietor of the United States Hotel. S[he] drew both maps. The larger map is titled "New map of Boston giving all points of interest..." The second, somewhat smaller map is "Bird's eye view of Boston Harbor..." The maps and the brochure accompanying have many ads for the U.S. Hotel, which ties in to the fact that they were drawn by the "Resident proprietor" of the Hotel. The maps are very well done. This may be one of the few times that a cartographer managed a hotel. David Rumsey Map Collectionhttp://www.davidrumsey.com/maps760036-22634.html

Hei La Moon restaurant serves dim sumhttp://www.hiddenboston.com/HeiLaMoon.html

United States Hotel, Boston, Sept. 7, 1887 Yesterday I went with Messr's.  [EM] Holland, [Eugene] Presbrey & [Alessandro] Salvini to see the Bostons and Philadelphians play.  Phillies won.  I will send a Globe with the score of the game to you.  The Philadelphians are stopping at this hotel. 

Jan 29, 1891 letter US Hotel
  United States Hotel, Boston 

US Hotel 1893

Hotel Bowdoin 1895 
 

Hotel Bowdoin
Hotel Bowdoin site 1-6 Bowdoin St. now an 11 story office building, with offices from Mass General Hospital and Senator John Kerry.

Bowdoin Square has changed considerablyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowdoin_Square_(Boston) since Scollay Square was demolished and Government Center built in the 1960s, but at one earlier point had both the Bowdoin Hotel and Bowdoin Theatre.  The Hotel burned in 1902 and was described in a New York Times article as primarily an actors' hotel.  Just beyond this on Cambridge, going towards the Charles River are Old West Church, built 1806, the 1796 Harrison Gray Otis househttp://www.historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/otis-house/otis-house  and Mass General Hospital  http://www.massgeneral.org/history/ , founded 1811.

While EJ Phillips never stayed at the Parker House (opened 1854) she must have walked past it on the way to the Boston Museum.  Did she ever have their Boston cream pie?
Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates at the United States Hotel at $15.00 per week [more than $2.00 per night], the Parker House at $1.50 and the Vendome at $5.00.  No rate is listed for the Hotel Bowdoin, though the Bowdoin Square Theatre is mentioned.

Buffalo
Hotel Iroquois  Oct. 1890  Wooley & Gerrans, Absolutely Fire Proof 

Hotel Iroquois http://www.buffaloah.com/h/iroqH/index.html    Buffalo Architecture and History  The Iroquois Hotel was first opened for business in the city. August 3rd, 1889, though it was for the greater part rebuilt in 1901 (Architects: Esenwein & Johnson), to meet the new and greater demands of Pan-America year.  Originally the Richmond Hotel, which burned in 1887. Presently the site of M & T Bank.   

The Mansion, Stafford & Co. March 1895

The Genesee Sept. 20, 1895 
Coming to Buffalo? Try the Genesee, European Plan from 1.00 up, American Plan from 3.00 Up, Commercial Trade Solicited Sept. 1895
  Now part of the Hyatt in Buffalo, though what remains dates from 1923-1924. 530 Main Street 1882-1922 http://estrip.org/articles/read/pyrcedgrrl/43265

Julius Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists hotel rates as $3.00 and up for the Iroquois, $2.50 for the Genesee and $2.00 and $1.50 for the Mansion and the Stafford.

Charleston, South Carolina
St. Charles Hotel GT Alford, Proprietor  Julius Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists hotel rates For the St. Charles as $2.00 and $2.50.

Charlotte, North Carolina
Central Hotel, Feb. 16, 1897 Gresham & Campbell, Proprietors 
Charlotte is a very pretty place, and I find myself in the hotel where Mr. Kirby died   Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide gives rats for the Central Hotel as $1.50 to $2.00. 

The Mansion House, built in 1840, which changed its name to Central Hotel in 1873, and continued to operate until the late 1930's, on the southeast corner of Trade and Tryon Streets, was, for many years, considered the finest hotel between Richmond and Atlanta. 
http://digitalcollections.uncc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15483coll1/id/816

Chicago

Briggs House1875https://www.greatchicagofire.org/landmarks/briggs-house/ While the Briggs House was not as luxurious as the Sherman House or the Palmer House, a pre-fire observer could still comment that it “has always been celebrated for the comfort, neatness, quiet, and admirable order of its appointments, and also for the excellence of its table and the general hospitality of it proprietors.” 
 https://chicagology.com/prefire/chicagoillustrated/1866jul02/ 
Rebuilt after the  1871 fire, and stood until 1928

Boston, May 30, 1886 We are to be in Chicago seven weeks.  I hear the lowest terms at Palmer House (where I wanted to stop, it being near the theatre) is $3 per day rather more than present salary will warrant me paying.  So I do not know where I shall stop.

Tremont House 1886, 1887
John A. Rice & Co., George A. Cobb, George S. Ross  1886  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremont_House_(Chicago)  

Palmer House, Oct. 18, 1888  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_House
History with photos of earlier hotels   http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2014/04/14/palmer-house-hilton-history-of-chicago-oldest-hotel/
Photo of hotel replaced in 1920http://interactive.wttw.com/loop/lost-loop/palmer-house-hotel
"THOROUGHLY  FIREPROOF"
Third of the four Palmer Houses (present building was built in the 1920's). Also in 1880/1881.

Sherman House, J. Irving Pearce, Proprietor 1889

Sherman House, Randolph Street between Clark and LaSalle,  Chicago
Hotel Sherman, Jazz Age Chicagohttps://jazzagechicago.wordpress.com/hotel-sherman/
Photo  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sherman_House,_from_Robert_N._Dennis_collection_of_stereoscopic_views.png

Leland Hotel 1890
Michigan Ave. Boulevard & Jackson St.
Warren F. Leland, Proprietor
Lake Front  The view from this hotel is unsurpassed by any in the world |

http://www.windycityroadwarrior.com/Stories/mich-jcksn-1914.htm Eventually called the Stratford, previously the Gardner House, then Leland Hotel 1872 - 1922

East Harrison St. and South Wabash Ave. intersection in the Loop, Chicago Daily News, Feb 8. 1908
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/I?cdn:1:./temp/~ammem_ULqy::displayType=1:m856sd...

Adams St North on Dearborn shows the Palmer House 1893http://tigger.uic.edu/depts/ahaa/imagebase/intranet/chiviews/page167.html

Sherman House, Oct. 19, 1893 World's Fair 1893, J. Irving Pearce, Proprietor
There are a great many strangers now in town [for the Columbian Exposition] - every street is crowded - they are coming and going all the time and the number of Express wagons loaded with trunks going to & fro from hotels and Depots is astonishing.

Chicago, Nov. 2, 1893 Yesterday I had to watch the great gathering of the people at the City Hall, which is just opposite this hotel, to pay their last tribute of respect for their late Mayor Carter Harrison who was so suddenly killed last Saturday.

Tremont House 1895
Alvin Hulbert & W.S. Eden, Proprs, GA Cobb, Manager 
  Cor. Lake And Dearborn Streets, The Astor House of Chicago, Alvin Hulbert & WS Eden, Proprietors, EH Kirkland, Manager May 1896

Nineteenth Century Hotels in the United States, Antiques Digest, orig. published 1927http://www.oldandsold.com/articles25/hotels-15.shtml 

Cincinnati 
Jan. 20, 1893 
Burnet House
Burnet House, Cincinnatihttp://thewarbetweenthestates.blogspot.com/2008/06/burnet-house-cincinnati.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=Sx0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=burnet+house+cincinnati&source=bl&ots=eu6SBfrCM9&sig=be3JhwJaeeF014b91eXCKhJoGuE&hl=en&ei=TEDzTPnWJIK78ga07-GoDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CHEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=burnet%20house%20cincinnati&f=false
A hotel built in 1849-50 on the northwest corner of Third and Vine streets in Cincinnati, a site formerly owned by Judge Jacob Burnet. Designed by Isaiah Rogers (1800-1869), the Burnet House stood until 1926 when it was replaced by the Union Central Building Annex. Rogers, already famous as the architect of Boston's Tremont House, the Astor House in New York City, the 1840-41 Exchange Hotel in Richmond, Virginia, and the New York and Boston Merchants' Exchanges, was called to Cincinnati by the projectors of the new hotel shortly after he had completed New York's Astor Place Opera House.

When the Burnet House opened on May 3, 1850, it was hailed as a hotel of unparalleled luxury. The Illustrated London News, a paper not noted for praising America, is said to have called it "the finest hotel in the world!" According to the Cincinnati Gazette of January 23, 1850, it measured 212 feet along Third Street and 209 feet on Vine Street. The central section was crowned by a dome 42 feet in diameter supporting a Corinthian cupola which commanded a panoramic view of the Ohio Valley from 100 feet above ground level. The walls were "stone-lined with brick, having a space between them, and the outside . . . plastered with a solid composition." Wide steps "of easy ascent" led to the Ionic hexastyle entrance portico. The large central courtyard was spanned by an iron lattice bridge, invented by Rogers, which led to "Gentlemen's Private Closets."

On the ground floor, stores -- including a barber shop and a cigar store -- flanked passages to the 78- foot- square barroom which contained thirty cast-iron Doric columns. The main floor contained a large marble- paved entrance hall, ladies' and gentlemen's public rooms, and 110-by-50-foot nah dining room, a spacious ladies' dining room graced by four Corinthian columns, and a children's dining room --"a new idea."

A total of 342 rooms provided lodging for about 550 guests. On the third and fourth stories were a number of parlor and bedroom suites, "each having a water closet and bathroom attached." Every floor had hydrants in case of fire, the building was gas-lighted throughout, and according to one source, the call bells worked "charmingly."  http://www.nbm.org/blueprints/80s/winter86/page2/page2.htm

Cleveland, Nov. 17, 1893  I do not know where I shall stop in Cincinnati.  The Burnet House I did not like last Winter.  It was expensive and not particularly comfortable. 

Palace Hotel, Cincinnati, Nov 23, 1893  Sixth and Vine, northwest corner, opened 1882,

Cahn's 1897 Theatrical guide lists rates for the Burnet House as $3 single and $2.50 double, for the Palace as $2.50 single and $1.50 double.

Cleveland
Jan 1893  The HOLLENDEN  Nov. 17, 1893   This is a splendid house.  Wish I had one like it everywhere.

Superior Ave. and Bond,  East 6th St., The HOLLENDEN HOTEL, once the most glamorous and colorful of Cleveland's hostelries, opened on 7 June 1885 … Designed by architect GEO. F. HAMMOND, it boasted electric lights, 100 private baths, and fireproof construction, a lavish interior with paneled walls, redwood and mahogany fittings, and crystal chandeliers. Politicians claimed the dining room and made it famous as a meeting place. 

http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=HH4   

Columbus Ohio
American Hotel Corner High and State Streets, opposite State Capitol 1895   Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide gives the American Hotel rates as $2. operated from 1837 to 1895 according to Historic Hotels of Columbus, Ohio and was across from the State House, often housing governors and frequented by legislators and city politicians. Ceased operating as a hotel but became stores which remained until the 1990s.https://books.google.com/books?id=0atpCgAAQBAJ&dq=american+hotel+columbus+ohio+1895&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Denver
St. James  1886, 1888  [Curtis St between 15th and 16th, opposite Tabor Opera House]

The Windsor Aug. 26, 1890  I telegraphed you yesterday of my safe arrival, but did not write for we were unsettled about our rooms, and indeed are still.  We have been promised better ones, but this hotel, as well as all the others are so full that we had hard struggling to get rooms of any sort.  I have nothing of interest to write.  What I see of the City is from the upper story of this hotel. 

Denver map 1908http://www.worldmapsonline.com/historicalmaps/kr-1908-denver.htm

Detroit
The Russell House 
WJ Chittenden, LA McCreary
Chittenden & McCreary, Proprs. 1892

WJ Chittenden, Proprietor May 1896

There wasn’t much to Detroit when S.K. Harring opened the National Hotel on Dec. 1, 1836, on the southeast corner of Campus Martius. The city was a sleepy hamlet of only about 9,000 people, and nothing that stood downtown then stands today. The hotel would go through a string of owners, each growing and remodeling parts of it. Then, in 1857, William Hale bought the property and hired the architectural firm Anderson & Jordan to overhaul the building. It was then leased to W.H. Russell, who opened it as the Russell House on Sept. 28, 1857. The Russell would be the city’s leading hotel for nearly half a century, and it was the center of Detroit’s social scene. “It is first class …(with) comfortable elegance everywhere abounding,” the Detroit Free Press wrote at the time of the hotel’s opening. “In all respects, the house is (a credit) to its projector, to the city and the West.” The Russell continued to morph over the years, with sections being torn down and rebuilt and additions being tacked on in attempt to keep up with Detroit’s growing population. Over it’s 48-year existence, the Russell would completely be transformed, looking nothing at the end like it did in the beginning.  http://www.historicdetroit.org/building/russell-house/  Demolished 1905.  

Hotel St. Claire 1895
Absolutely Fire Proof, Wm. P. Beyer, Prop.

Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates as $2.50 to $3.50 and The St. Claire as $2 to $3.

Hotel Ste. Clairehttp://www.historicdetroit.org/building/hotel-ste-claire/ The Ste. Claire opened June 8, 1893, on the northeast corner of Randolph and Monroe streets. It was built by the prominent Brush estate, and it quickly became the city’s finest and most popular hotel and the center of the growing city’s social life. It also was the first fireproof hotel erected in Detroit, according to “The City of Detroit” by Clarence Monroe Burton.The Ste. Claire was one of Detroit’s swankier hotels at the time and boasted 140 rooms. It was a smaller - and cheaper - alternative to the more lavish Russell House and original Pontchartrain, which were down the road on Campus Martius. Built in the Dutch/Flemish Renaissance Revival style, the Ste. Claire looked like something out of old Europe.

Hartford Connecticut
United States Hotel City Hall Square Ryan, Clark & Daniels, Proprietors  1892  Cahn's 1897 Theatrical guide lists rates the US Hotel as $2 and up, and as being one block from both theaters.

Indianapolis Dennison 1893 135 North Pennsylvania St http://historicindianapolis.com/then-and-now-denison-hotel-135-n-pennsylvania-street/    the Denison Hotel was considered one of the city’s finest. Despite shaky beginnings, the Denison stood for over fifty years on the southeast corner of East Ohio and North Pennsylvania Streets. In 1870 a group of investors started to build a large hotel, but the construction was not “vigorously pushed” and the project languished. The unfinished, four-story brick structure was nearly destroyed by fire in 1874. A few years later, political mover-and- shaker John C. New, along with Cincinnati businessman John M. Denison and a few others, bought the ruins and built a hotel much more elaborate than originally conceived. Although it was officially named the “New-Denison Hotel,” after the principal investors, it was more commonly referred to as the “Denison Hotel.” Located at the intersection of Pennsylvania and Ohio Streets and Massachusetts Avenue, the 250-room hotel thrived. It featured restaurants, billiards, a bar, a drug store, and a separate ladies’ entrance. In the 1880s and ‘90s the Republican Party often gathered at the Denison and President Benjamin Harrison often met with local residents in the dining room when he returned to Indianapolis…. In the late 1920s Norman A. Perry and his sister Ruth (Perry) Griffith, heirs of Charles Coffin Perry, bought the financially troubled hotel due to its busy location. Striving to make the busy corner profitable, they astutely recognized the city’s need to accommodate more automobiles and razed the old hotel in 1933 for a parking garage.  http://historicindianapolis.com/then-and-now-denison-hotel-135-n-pennsylvania-street/

Kansas City
Coates House  
K. Coates, Prop. Tenth and Broadway 1887

Estate of K. Coates, Prop. 
Henry Weaver, Manager 1888, 1890

The NEW COATES 
Absolutely Fireproof 
Coates Opera House on Diagonal Corner Best Attractions Only
Kansas City, Mo  Septr 29th 1896 

Coates House and Coates Opera House, Kansas City Public Library http://www.kclibrary.org/?q=blog/month-kansas-city-history/last-night-opera-house  
http://www.vintagekansascity.com/places/coateshouse.html 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coates_House_Hotel built in 1889–1891 incorporating parts of an earlier hotel, which had been built in the late 1860s as the Broadway Hotel and then become the Coates House after a change in ownership. In 1978, when it had become primarily single-room occupancy for transients, it burned in the deadliest fire in the city's history. It was subsequently restored and is now an apartment building....It was a five-story brick building with a mansard roof. It did not prosper, and in 1870 Coates acquired it and it was renamed the Coates House. In the 1860s, Coates had built an opera house diagonally across 10th Street; it and the hotel catalyzed the development of a wealthy neighborhood.^[1][2] Beginning in 1886, Coates added a new wing at the south end; President Grover Cleveland and his wife Frances stayed there in October 1887.^[1][3] Coates had died in April 1887. Beginning in 1888, his widow and family demolished the original hotel and rebuilt it on the same site as the New Coates House Hotel, while enlarging Coates' addition. President Benjamin Harrison stayed in the addition in 1890, before rebuilding was complete. The new hotel opened on January 10, 1891. This building, the northern section of which survives, was designed by Van Brunt & Howe; it has six stories and is of brick with stone ornamentation and stone courses on the upper floors, and white-painted stone with brick courses on the first floor. A balcony extends across each of the two main facades, on Broadway and 10th Street. The building originally had a crenellated parapet inscribed with "Coates House" on both main facades, and turrets or belvederes at the corners; these have been removed, as have the chimneys. It originally formed a rectangle around a central courtyard; the four-story east side, which housed services such as laundry and storage and rooms for employees, was later mostly demolished, leaving a U-shaped building.^[1]The new hotel had a marble main staircase and offered services including a barber shop, a florist's, a bonnet shop, and Turkish baths.^[1][2] It remained a prestigious hotel for several decades;

10th and 1005 Broadway 

Knoxville, Tennessee
Hotel Imperial, RW Farr, Manager  1897  Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates at the Hotel Imperial as $2 for a single, with an ad quoting $2 to $4.50 per day. 

Gay and Clinch Streets photohttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Imperial_Hotel_-_Knoxville,_Tennessee.JPG  Opened about 1894 burned 1916.

London, Ontario
Tecumseh House   1892 
Charles W. Davis, Proprietor   [add letterhead]

White Sulfur Springs Bath
Famous Health Resort
The Saratoga of Canada
in connection with the hotel
Great attraction to visitors seeking health
CW Davis, Treas., AD Holman, Man        Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide gives rates for Tecumseh house as $2 and $1.50.

Los Angeles 
Hotel Nadeau 
 HW Chase & Maynes  Proprietors, Jos. Schreiber, Jr. Manager Sept. 1888
 

Aug. 1890 "practically fire-proof"

A visit to Old Los Angeles, The Hotel Nadeau, said to be the first four story building in Los Angeles, now the site of the Los Angeles Times building, southwest corner of Spring St. and First St. In the old Spanish days, this site was a flat stretch of ground which Angelenos would make use of on the occasion of a community fandango http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal3.html  more on Los Angeles and the Hotel Nadeau

Hotel Ramona, Cor. Spring and Third Streets, FB Mallory, Prop, Sept. 1896   Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates at the "Ramina" as $1.50 and $1.25.  An ad gives the European plan as 50 cents and American plan $1.50 and $1.75 up.

Louisville
The Willard, Feb. 1893, Nov. 1893
WS Miller, Jr.  Manager, Rates $2.50 per day

Cahn/s 1897 Theatrical Guide gives rates as $1.75 and $1.50.

Madison Wisconsin
The Park Hotel, Geo. A. Lougee, Prop  Cahn's 1897 Theatrical guide gives rates as $2-$3.

Memphis Tennessee
Peabody Hotel  The original Peabody Hotel was built in 1869 at the corner of Main and Monroe Streets by Robert Campbell Brinkley, who named it to honor his friend, the recently deceased George Peabody ...The hotel closed in 1923^[1] in preparation for a move one block away. The building was demolished and Lowenstein's department store was constructed there.^[3] ...The current Peabody Hotel building, on Union Avenue, is an Italian Renaissance structure designed by noted Chicago architect Walter W. Ahlschlager.[3] Construction began less than a month after the old hotel closed.[3] The new hotel was built on the previous site of the Fransioli Hotel, a structure which looked nearly identical to the original Peabody Hotel.[4] The new hotel opened on September 1, 1925.[3] Wikipedia  accessed 2018 April 14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peabody_Hotel

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Plankinton Feb. 1893
AL Chase, Manager 

Plankinton House hotel fire 1883 http://www3.gendisasters.com/node/5324

Hotel Davidson, Nov 8, 1893 Rooms single or En Suite
EUROPEAN Absolutely Fire Proof, E.T. Dorman, Manager  I left Chicago on Sunday 3 PM and arrived here at 5:15 PM.  Wish all my railroad trips could be so short.  I am comfortably located in the above hotel and it is adjoining the theatre. Everything is new, clean and elegant.  Consequently I regret we remain here only one week.

Hotel Davidson
Absolutely Fireproof   European Plan
Milwaukee, 1895
E.T. Dorman, Manager, Restaurant Sixth Floor   Finest Turkish Baths in the City

Another undated piece of Davidson stationery reads Rooms Single or En suite, with or without baths, $1.00 Upwards 

Hotel and Theatre Davidson Countless stage greats played the Davidson Theater at 621 N. 3rd St.  Its playbills included stars like Sarah Bernhardt, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Irene Dunne, Boris Karloff and Fred Allen... Built in 1890 by two Davidson brothers from Chicago, it was damaged heavily by fire four years later. Luckily, no one was in the theater when the fire broke out, but a troupe of midgets that had been playing there to capacity audiences was rescued from the adjoining Davidson Hotel by Charles Harris, composer of "After the Ball." The Davidson was rebuilt and was one of several Milwaukee theaters where legitimate plays were presented. Its theatrical history was interrupted occasionally by films. "The Birth of a Nation" was shown there in 1915, at prices ranging from a quarter to a  dollar. But changing demands of audiences led to the final curtain in 1954. It was remodeled in 1955 for business use, and was torn down in 1963.
http://content.mpl.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/RememberWhe&CISOPTR=105&CISOBOX=1&REC=5  1890

Hotel Davidson photo  Vintage Milwaukee postcards  2006 http://books.google.com/books?id=jRbdFjNfMlAC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=hotel+davidson+milwaukee+postcards&source=bl&ots=h0IUEiSei3&sig=xSFr7sjpX7T9DcvOkK-5Hla0aCI&hl=en&ei=HUZbTZCsGsGAlAej3q3oDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

Cahn's 1897 Theatrical guide gives rates for the Plankinton as $2.50- $4 and lists the Davidson but without rates. 

Montreal
The Windsor 1894  GW Swett, Manager

Queen's Hotel, Jan 1, 1895   
Windsor & St. James. St. 
EM Mathews, Manager

Last night Miss Nethersole & [Marcus] Mayer gave a little supper to the Company at the Windsor Hotel, and I went, and it was nearly 2 AM when I got back to this hotel.  A nice way for an old lady to begin the New Year.  The sun is just bursting forth to smile on the New Year - a happy harbinger, I hope of good luck to us all.  I have steam heat in my room, and it is turned off and I have to have the window open - on New Years day 1895.  A strange thing for this part of the world.  And I do not think it healthy.  See by today's paper that the Delevan House in Albany was burned last night.  I have stopped there many times.  Albany needed a new hotel, but the loss of life is deplorable. Winsor Hotel Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Hotel_(Montreal)  accessed Nov 26, 2010 Opened 1878 closed 1981, "often considered the first grand hotel in Canada.

The Windsor hotel (built in 1878) was a luxurious hotel at the corner of Dorchester Blvd. (now known as René-Levesque Blvd.) and Peel street, on the west side of Dominion square (now known as Dorchester square). It, unfortunately, burnt down inn 1953 but the annex still remains. The annex was renovated in the1980s as an office building.

New Orleans No hotel name for the 1897 trip, just the address 1044 Carondolet St. (but they did arrive in the middle of Mardi Gras. New Orleans Population 275,000.

New York Hotels
Nineteenth Century Hotels in the United States, Antiques Digest, orig. published 1927http://www.oldandsold.com/articles25/hotels-12.shtml  

Aberdeen Hotel Broadway & 21st St. Geo. F. Atherton
above Park & Tilford's Grocery Store  
Mar. 5, 1894 I hope you will be able to come over and see me this week.  I have Matinees Wed & Sat.  Take 23rd St ferry and car to Broadway.  I have come to this hotel with Mr. & Mrs. [Herbert] Ayling, $7 per week for room on the 5th floor but there is a "lift" after arriving at the 1st floor.  I think I shall prefer it to Mrs. Johnsons.  The entrance to this house is on Broadway.  You cannot miss it. If I am satisfied with this house I shall remain here next week, making the journey to Brooklyn by Broadway car, Bridge & Brooklyn Elevated to Park Theatre.  If I do not like it, I shall move over to the Clarendon in Brooklyn next week.

New York Nov. 19, 1890 Yesterday went to the Brunswick  hotel to hear Mrs. Kendal address the Goethe Society.  Subject "The Stage".  Heard nothing new but the subject was nicely put together, and very clearly delivered by Mrs. Kendall who has a very sweet toned voice. 

The Brunswick Hotel was on Madison Square at Fifth Avenue and 25th Street  "much favored by English tourists and is patronized also by the wealthy young men about town". [Kings NYC?]

225 Fifth Ave. http://www.nysonglines.com/27st.htm 27th St and Fifth Ave South
Handsome red-brick Gift Building was formerly the Brunswick Hotel, noted as the home of the Coaching Club, which held carriage parades up 5th Avenue. On July 14, 1880, on the 16th day of a celebrated 40-day fast, Dr. Henry S. Tanner stopped here and drank two ounces of water. It's now "the premiere international giftware showplace."

An ad in an 1887-'88 14th Street Theatre program reads "Table d' Hote Dinner at the Hotel Brunswick from 6 to 8 p.m. $1.50 The restaurant a la carte is open until 1 o'clock for the accommodation of Theatre parties." 

On Madison Square's west side were expensive hotels, including the white marble Fifth Avenue Hotel (opened 1859) and the Hoffman House

Fifth Avenue Hotel  Madison Square West, opened 1859, and was demolished in 1908.and replaced by the International Toy Center in the Fifth Avenue Building, 200 Fifth Ave.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Center 

The International Toy Center replaced the Fifth Avenue Hotel (1858-1908), once the most exclusive hotel in NYC. Cornelius Vanderbilt and cronies would trade stocks here after hours. Setting of Gore Vidal's 1876. Earlier was Franconi's Hippodrome (1852-59); before that was Corporal Thompson's Madison Cottage, roadhouse described by New York Herald as "one of the most agreeable spots for an afternoon's lounge in the suburbs of our city." New York Songlines,http://www.nysonglines.com/5av.htm#10st Fifth Ave and 10th St.

In 1860 the Prince of Wales stayed at the Fifth Avenue Hotel at 23rd Street, establishing the social credentials of what is now Chelsea in Manhattan. 

A Future for Madison Square's Historic Past, Madison Square Historic District, NY Times July 21,2001 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/15/realestate/a-future-for-madison-square-s-past.html

Holland House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_House_(New_York_City)

New York, Jan 24, 1892  I rehearse at 11 tomorrow and at 3 PM have to attend a "tea & reception" at the Holland House [Hotel] [30th St & 5th Avenue] given by the committee of "TheActors Fund Fair" to be held in May at the Madison Square Garden.  I suppose the object to-morrow will be to see what everybody concerned is willing to do, to make the affair a success. 

Marble Collegiate Church and Holland House photo http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/detr:@field(SUBJ+@band(Holland+House++New+York,+N+Y+++))

Named for Lord Holland's mansion in London, it was considered one of the premier hotels in the world when built in 1891. New York Songlines Broadway & 30th St. http://www.nysonglines.com/30st.htm#broadway

Still there, photos and commentary, Ephemeral New York  https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/tag/holland-house/
Opening described Dec 6 1891 https://www.nytimes.com/1891/12/06/archives/a-magnificent-hotel-private-view-of-the-new-holland-house-on-fifth.html

Hotel Peteler, SE Corner of 124th Street & Lexington Ave NY  
Apr. 12, 1893 Well I came up here and am very glad I came.  My room is not as large but the other conveniences [bathrooms?] are better.  I am half a block from back entrance of theatre -- board is very good, and I get it for $9 per week -- quite a save on $20. 

Hotel St. Denis was at Broadway and 11th Street, opposite Grace Church. "A few minutes walk above the St. Denis is the brilliant Union Square and the shopping district extends on all sides...The Broadway cable cars pass the doors almost every minute."Kings NYC1893 

Milwaukee Feb. 17, 1893  I do not yet know where I can put up, for all the rooms are occupied at Nagles, and the hotels of which there are many in the vicinity, are expensive.  But I am going to try the Hotel Dane or St Denis.

New York, Mar. 14, 1893  Arrived in the City yesterday and went to [Hotel] St Denis at 4:40 PM.  

New York, Sept. 8, 1895 In the Afternoon I had a very pleasant visit with Kittie Fay Peregoy. She and her husband are stopping at the [Hotel] St Denis.

Rossmore Hotel   Broadway, 41st and 42nd Sts
Boston, Oct. 1, 1887  Tomorrow we leave here at 4 PM for New York.  I am going with Mr. & Mrs. [Louis F] Massen to the Rossmore, 41st and B'way.  Mr. Massen thinks I can make terms there to suit me for the winter.  At all events I shall stop there until I can find something to suit my pocket- book.  Of course I would prefer being nearer the theatre than 41st, although B'way cars are very convenient but always crowded.

New York, Oct. 4,1887 I arrived 10:30 Sunday night and came with Mr. & Mrs. [Louis] Massen to this hotel where Mr. Massen thought, and tried to make terms for me, but in vain.  Everything is too high for me.  Nothing less than $25 per week that would be fit to live in.  I can have 3rd story front room heated for $8 per week [at 50 West 24th St., with breakfast, but taking lunch and dinner out] and in the long run I think, be cheaper than anything else, and when I feel like eating I shall not be tied down to boarding house fare. In the hotels I cannot get anything comfortable under $4 per day, and have to waste a great deal of time in being waited on. 

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-d421-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 

Sturtevant  Between 28th and 29th Street, on the east side of Broadway (1186 Broadway), the Maurice Barrymores often had a suite here (before moving to an apartment on 59th Street and Fifth Avenue in 1890).Kotsilibas-Davis

Boston, Sept. 28, 1887  Hattie wants me to go to a hotel, but I am afraid New York Hotels are beyond my means.  The "Sturtevant"is recommended to me as reasonable for the hotel, but not for me. I had to pay $16 per week last winter after Hattie left me.  I can get good room and board at Sturtevant for $17.56 per week.

New York, Jan.4, 1897 I located in the above [Sturtevant]  this afternoon a little before  4 o'clock.  Tried the New Amsterdam-- but they had only two single rooms vacant -- both dark and about the size of [grandson's] Ted's bedroom - would not have held my trunks.

The "tasteful, elegant, and ample" Union Square Theatre in the center of the Union Place Hotel, on 14th Street, on the south side of Union Square, between Broadway and 4th Avenue, was designed and build by architect HM Simons for brewer-politician [and AM Palmer partner] Sheridan Shook.

Union Square Hotel was at the southeast corner of 15th and Union Square West. Single-tax advocate Henry George died here, October 29, 1897.http://www.nysonglines.com/4av.htm and East 15th St 

Waldorf Hotel 5th Ave. and 33rd. St. [now site of the Empire State Building]  


Mar. 19, 1893The New Waldorf Hotel was opened on Thursday to the Public and everybody is amazed at the magnificence displayed.  Only $20 per day for a suite consisting of Parlor, bedroom & bathroom.  Meals extra. It is on the European plan.  I guess we could live there for about $40 per day, $280 per week.  Not much for a Rockefeller or Vanderbilt but the Astors will never get it out of this child.  Cause why?  She hasn't got that much & never will have.  And if she had, would not spend it so foolishly.  

The Hotel Waldorf was built by William Waldorf Astor and "said to have cost $5,000.000."  It was twelve stories high and "abounding in loggias, balconies, gables, groups of chimneys, and tiled roofs.  One of the chief features is the interior garden court, with fountains and flowers, walls of white terra cotta, frescoes, and stained glass." (Kings NYC)

Fifth Ave. between West 33rd and 34th Sts. This block was the site of two mansions owned by the Astor family--the northern half was owned by Caroline (Mrs. William) Astor...  The southern half held the mansion of her nephew, William Waldorf Astor, which inspired the fashion for mansard roofs. Feuding over who had the right to be referred to as "Mrs. Astor," the nephew in 1893 replaced his house with the Waldorf Hotel, designed by Henry Hardenbergh, in order to spite his aunt. (Waldorf was John Jacob Astor's hometown in Germany.) Caroline Astor responded by replacing her own home with the Astoria Hotel, also designed by Hardenbergh, which were combined in 1897 to create the Waldorf- Astoria (though Caroline insisted on the right to re-separate the hotels at any time). ... U.S. Steel was born at the hotel in 1901. The Waldorf salad was invented there in 1896. In 1929 the hotel relocated uptown, and the Empire State Building was built on this site.  New York Songlines Broadway and 6th Ave.http://www.nysonglines.com/34st.htm#6av   Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf-Astoria_Hotel

Kaplan, Justin, When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age, Viking, Penguin Group, 2006http://www.amazon.com/When-Astors-Owned-New-York/dp/0670037699/sr=1-1/qid=1161482434/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5951844-9316153?ie=UTF8&s=books

Williams, Ellen and Steve Radlauer, Historic Shops & Restaurants of New York, New York: The Little Bookroom, 2002http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1892145154/qid=1078015784/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-6039487-5225513?v=glance&s=bookshas chapters on bakeries and sweet shops, cafes and coffee roasters, Italian restaurants, Jewish delicatessens, restaurants,  saloons and wine shops and steak and chop houses.

Newark, New Jersey
Park House,  86 & 88 Park Place, Opp. Military Park
H. Koellhoffer, Prop'r
Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists the Park rates as $1.50 and $2.

Newport Rhode Island
Perry House 
New Port, R.I.        
Feby 8th 1894 
Open all year 
W.I. O'Brien, Proprietor 

Cahn's 1897 Theatrical guide lists the rates for the Perry Hotel as $2.50 single, $2 double.

 Niagara Falls
1892 "I have not been to the Theatre yet.  It is only three blocks distant from this hotel."  [hotel not specified.]

1894 Hotel Kaltenbach  http://www.archivaria.com/BusDNFalls/BusDNFalls3.html  Search for Andreas Kaltenbach
1895 Fronting State Park and Rapids, American Side
http://books.google.com/books?id=P90TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA424&lpg=PA424&dq=Niagara+Falls+Hotel+Kaltenbach&source=bl&ots=6OITL50C20&sig=-gAIgEW1JYmo9nBxH2Z9582GI04&hl=en&ei=JcY5TdixEoS8lQf9yeSOBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Niagara%20Falls%20Hotel%20Kaltenbach&f=false

Photo http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/det.4a18774/    1878-1920s "one of the leading hotels in Niagara Falls".

Omaha 
The Murray B. Silloway, Propr., 14th & Harney, 1890

"One of the leading and most successful hotels in Omaha  on the American Plan ... erected four years ago by Mr. Thos Murray and is named after the owner.  A spacious six story and basement building contained 100 rooms.  All the rooms are well ventilated and handsomely furnished.  The sanitary arrangements are perfect in every detail and the means of escape in case of fire ample. The Murray is equipped with electric lights, annunciators, elevators, steam het, hot and cold water in every room... Sixty competent help are employed. Mr. B Siloway the proprietor was born in Vermont, but has resided in the West for the past twenty years. Pen and Sunlight Sketches of Omaha and environs, page 113, 1892http://books.google.com/books?id=Di8WAAAAYAAJ&dq=murray+omaha+silloway&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The Paxton 
Ralph Kitchen, Manager  1896 

Early Omaha Digital Collections, Omaha Public Libraryhttps://omahalibrary.org/digital-collections/  

Philadelphia 
Collonade House EJ Phillips paid $6.50 to stay at the Collonade for a Philadelphia engagement in August 1872.
Stood 1832-1925 on the Southwest corner of Chestnut and 15th St. between Rittenhouse and Logan Squares. Site of the October 1872 Republican convention which nominated Ulysses Grant.http://www.philaplace.org/story/1402/

Stratford Hotel, now the Bellevue Hyatt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bellevue-Stratford_Hotel  1881-present building opened 1904
1890  Oct  Saints & Sinners being so late on Friday night I could not catch the 1:17 train, so I took a room at the Stratford Hotel, Broad Street  for the night, and did not return here until after performance of Jim on Saturday night
Bellevue Hyatt

Nineteenth Century Hotels in the United States, Antiques Digest orig. published 1927  http://www.oldandsold.com/articles25/hotels-13.shtml 

Pittsburgh
Hotel Schlosser Nov  1894
We are playing at the "Alvin" Theatre, almost adjoining this hotel.     

Hotel Victoria
European Plan, Cor. Sixth & Penn Ave.
GC Dellenbach, Proprietor, Fred S. Avery, Manager, Nov. 1896

Portland, Oregon 
The Portland, June 21, 1890  You see I am living in a fine house and kept by Chas. Leland.  All furnished in [Charles] Eastlake [Arts and Crafts] style and quite new. 

The Portland, Sept. 15, 1896 
HC Bowers, Manager 

Wish we were booked here for a week, Hotel and Theatre both comfortable, and only across the street from each other. 

Ford's Hotel  opposite Capitol Park, Rates reduced to $2.50 and $3.00 per day, Comfortable coaches run to and from all stations & steamboat landings, AJ Ford, Owner & Proprietor  1893 


Sacramento
Golden Eagle Hotel  ,WO Bowers, Proprietor 1890
Gray & Titus, Proprietors  Sept. 1896 

WO Bowers and the Golden Eagle Hotelhttp://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~npmelton/sacbow.htm 
Historical Archaeology at the Golden Eagle Site: Golden Eagle Hotel and Oyster Saloonhttp://www.sonoma.edu/asc/projects/golden_eagle/index.html#
History Golden Eagle Hotelhttp://www.sonoma.edu/asc/projects/golden_eagle/I_01_History_Golden_Eagle_Hotel.pdf
Image and information http://www.sacramentohistory.org/search.php?imageid=868

Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists Golden Eagle rates as $2.50 single $2 double.

Saint Louis

Southern Hotel Dec. 5 1893
Wm Russell Allen, Pres. JW Wallace, Sec'y & Treas.
HC Lewis, Manager, Absolutely Fire Proof

Opened in 1865. Closed in 1912 http://bygonestlouis.blogspot.com/2010/02/southern-hotel-ca-1875.html   Fourth and Walnut
The Magnificent Southern Hotelhttps://www.distilledhistory.com/southernhotel/  the city of St. Louis at that time was a very crowded place. The population was almost exactly what it is today (about 320,000), but the city itself was much smaller.... Although new neighborhoods had been developed away from the congested riverfront starting in the 1850’s, the city around the Southern Hotel remained densely populated. The neighborhood around the Southern was also a very upscale part of town. Grand homes and elegant buildings surrounded the hotel, especially to the north and west. It was a time when St. Louis was one of the biggest cities in America, and it could rival the glitz and glamour of cities like New York and Philadelphia. The Southern was the most luxurious hotel in St. Louis. Cameron Collins

Kansas City, Oct. 1, 1896  Leave here Saturday night for St Louis.  Give 10 performances there beginning with Sunday night the 4th and ending Sunday 11th with two Matinees thrown in.  Real pleasant.  It will be State Fair week and Carnival time.  What is troubling us is where we shall be able to find shelter.  The City is expected to be over- crowded. 

Lindell Hotel, Oct. 4, 1896 
Under New Management, American and European Plan, Jno. F. Donovan, Proprietor, Redecorated, Renovated and Every Way Improved 

Here I am.  Arrived this Morning at 7.  Had a hard time finding shelter, but I succeeded in locating at the above.  Four blocks from[Century] theatre. . 

St. Louis Commercial Development The City's business life centered along Main (First) Street between Walnut Street and Washington Avenue, until about 1840, when it began a gradual westward expansion. This movement was accelerated by the Great Fire of 1849, which burned out most of the area east of Third Street between Walnut and Locust. The City's earliest surviving buildings, largely of brick or wood frame construction, were destroyed in the fire. This presented an opportunity to rebuild on more substantial fireproof lines. The new structures in the riverfront district were generally four or five stories in height with heavy brick walls faced with stone or cast iron facades. Most of these were razed in 1940 for the riverfront memorial park. The levee declined in importance with the lull in steamboat traffic following the Civil War and the downtown commercial axis had reached Fourth Street by 1870. During the period preceding and immediately following the War, this street contained the City's principal hotels, office buildings and stores.

The chief hotels of the period were the Southern at Fourth and Walnut, the Planters House at Fourth and Chestnut, the Everett House on Fourth near Locust and the Lindell at Sixth and Washington. The office buildings were concentrated near the Old Courthouse, which was the focal point of the City's life at that time. The retail shopping center was at the upper end of Fourth Street near Washington Avenue, where such stores as Scruggs and the Barr Dry Goods Company were located. Banking activity centered on Olive and Locust Streets near Fourth. The principal theaters were the Olympic and the Grand Opera House located near Broadway and Market Street. Until the early 1880's, the western fringe of the present business district was residential as far east as Ninth Street. Broadway succeeded Fourth Street as the business axis in the period between 1885 and 1895. History of St. Louis Neighborhoods: Downtown Commercial Developments, https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/archive/neighborhood-histories-norbury-wayman/cbd/text7.htm

Tower Grove Park is an unusual, elegant 19th century Victorian walking park adjacent to the Missouri Botanical Garden. The grounds of the 289-acre park are punctuated with 10 whimsical pavilions, lily ponds, statuary, fountains, and mock classical "ruins." The park has the most diverse and interesting urban forest in the central United States with a greater variety of trees and shrubs than any other urban park in the country. Tower Grove Park was established in 1868 by Henry Shaw, the founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated a National Historic Landmark, one of only four municipal parks in the country to achieve that status.  An artificial ruin, a feature often found in Victorian parks but seldom in America, is built from the stones of the former Lindell Hotel, which burned down some years ago. 
https://www.facebook.com/notes/tower-grove-park/helpful-information-about-tower-grove-park/86093880541

Cahn's 1897 theatrical guide gives rates for the Southern Hotel as $3 up and for the Lindell as $2 to $4 per day single and $2 to $3 per day double.

Salt Lake City
Walker House and the Continental Hotel, G.S. Erb, Proprietor  1886

The Walker House is a four story brick structure with 132 rooms. It is located on the west side of Main Street. It has lately been entirely renovated and handsomely furnished; also has the addition of a passenger elevator. It is especially noted for its excellent table, which is abundant in game, fruits, fish etc.  Your Guidebook to the Pacific Railroad, 1879  http://books.google.com/books?id=blk0AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Walker Opera House. Built in 1882, it was located on the south side of 200 South Street between Main and West Temple streets. To settle the dispute between the two theaters, the New York booking agencies agreed to divide bookings evenly. In 1891 the Walker Opera House burned down.http://www.onlineutah.com/theatrehistory.shtml

Cullen SC Ewing, Proprietor, Rates $3 PER DAY, CENTRALLY LOCATED 1888


33 West 200 South  Lobby photohttp://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/USHS_Shipler&CISOPTR=4225Exterior photo http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/USHS_Shipler&CISOPTR=894

The Knutsford GS Holmes 1890http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/Savage&CISOPTR=1144&CISOBOX=1&REC=2 Z

Sept. 22, 1896  I find some changes here in the way of new buildings.  This hotel is new and very nice.

Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates for the Walker House as 50 cents, 75 cents and $1, the Cullen as $2.50 and $1.75 and the Knutsford as $3 up.

San Francisco
Recent Hotels in the United States, Antique Digest, orig. published 1927.http://www.oldandsold.com/articles25/hotels-18.shtml

Baldwin Hotel and Theatre Corner Powell and Market Streets The theatre was built in 1875.   "In 1878Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin built a magnificent hotel which encompassed the playhouse and occupied the rest of the block."  More under Baldwin Theatre 

Built by mining speculator "Lucky" Baldwin  in 1877 and destroyed by fire in 1898.  Blanche Whiffen (the original Buttercup of HMS Pinafore) writes in her autobiography of being in San Francisco with the Madison Square stock company in 1881 with Esmerelda playing the old mother to Annie Russell in the title role and being "put up at   the Baldwin Hotel, but hotel fires were so numerous that Mr. Whiffen would not stay in that large wooden fire-trap. He became so nervous the first night that he got up and walked the room and the lobby until morning, and then hustled me out of there, to an apartment on Bush Street." Mrs. Thomas Whiffen, Keeping off the Shelf, New York EP Dutton & Co, 1928

San Francisco, Aug. 1, 1886 The City is full of strangers, the G.A.R., badges are very conspicuous on Men and women.  This is Sunday, but every few minutes a band passes playing Yankee Doodle or Hail Columbia.  The City is ornamented with arches, flags, portraits of the War Generals and in many places Grant & Lee hang side by side!  Tuesday is the day when the grand procession takes place.

After that the City will soon be quiet again, and I shall be able to get a good room in the hotel.  I am now in the Mansard room, comfortable little room which, under the circumstances, is better than I expected.  We have the New York division's [G.A.R.] headquarters in this hotel, also Wisconsin and Kansas, and I think Missouri.  With this Grand Army business it seems all the trains are late. 

San Francisco, Aug. 18, 1896 Well here I am once more in San Francisco, after an absence of six years. New people are running the hotel and all are strange to me, but I have a nice pretty room on the 3rd floor with sunny outlook, bathroom and large closet  all for $2.50 per day. I used to pay $3.50 for the same accommodation, only room was about 2 feet wider.

The (underinsured) Baldwin Hotel burned on Nov. 23, 1898. Albert Nickinson took this photograph of the ruins in Dec. 1898, upon his return from Honolulu and the Spanish American War.

Baldwin Hotel ruins December 1898
 

Baldwin was dealt the final blow on Nov. 23, 1898, when the Baldwin Hotel and theater complex in San Francisco caught fire in the early morning hours and burned to the ground. The fire practically ruined him, because the losses amounted to somewhere around $2.5 million and his insurance covered only $185,000 of the damage. With the Santa Anita Ranch and his other properties heavily mortgaged, he had nothing left to compensate for the loss of his showplace hotel.  He did what his financial condition required him to do and sold his Market and Powell Street properties in San Francisco to James L. Flood for $1.1 million. The purchase price was $200,000 above the mortgage held on the site and gave Baldwin some much-needed capital to start over again. In the summer of 1900, at the age of 72, he set sail for Nome in hopes of recouping his dwindling fortune in the Alaska gold rush.  Debra Ginsburg, "Lucky" Baldwin, A legend larger than life, California Thoroughbred Breeders Assoc., April 1999 http://archive.ctba.com/99magazine/apr99/aprnews1.htm

New York Times Nov 24 1898 San Francisco Hotel Firehttps://www.nytimes.com/1898/11/24/archives/san-francisco-hotel-fire-lucky-baldwins-house-laid-in-ruins-by.html

Lucky Baldwin heiresshttp://berkeleyheritage.com/eastbay_then-now/baldwin.html

EJ Phillips doesn't mention the Palace Hotel, but it wasn't far from Baldwin's. It opened in 1875 and was described by Mrs. Frank Leslie in 1877
http://books.google.com/books?id=yD9AAAAAYAAJ&dq=MRS+FRANK+LESLIE+PALACE+HOTEL+SAN+FRANCISCO&source=gbs_navlinks_s  Chapter 11  and is still in San Franciscohttp://www.sfpalace.com/main/history.htm.  While it survived the earthquake of 1906 it required extensive restoration from the subsequent fires. 
Brief illustrated history of the Palace Hotel http://thepalacehotel.org/

Tadich Grill 1849 The Story of San Francisco's Oldest Restauranthttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1580084257/ref=ase_thekitchenlink/104-9478284-7087150?v=glance&s=books 

Seattle, Washington
The Rainier, HL Gulline & Co. Agents

The Rainier June 26, 1890 Well I am in Seattle! at the above hotel which stands on a high hill overlooking Puget Sound -- the "Mediterranean of America".  The view from my window is indeed very beautiful.  

The Rainier Hotel on 5th Avenue between Columbia and Marion Streets was erected quickly following the 1889 Seattle fire, which destroyed much of the downtown hotel space. Never a financial success, the Rainier wasrazed around 1910.PHOTOhttp://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm-mohai/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/imlsmohai&CISOPTR=3468&CISOBOX=1&REC=15

Occidental  AA Seagrave, Proprietor
Corner Third Avenue and Cherry Street  Sept. 1896

Occidental Hotel slideshow http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7081 

Seattle Historic Hotels, Robin Shannon 2010 http://books.google.com/books?id=a4xzdYCecOgC&dq=rainier+hotel+seattle+1890&source=gbs_navlinks_s 
Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates for the Rainer as $2.50 and $2, for the Occidental as $1.50 and $1.25.

Stockton California 1890
YoSemite House Sharp Bros. Proprietors, HW Sharp, The Only First Class Hotel in the City 1890  Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates as $2 and $1.75.

August 18 1890
My dear Children,

Left Los Angeles yesterday at 12:45 PM, Arrived here this morning at seven. Weather awfully hot -- cool here this morning but at 11 it will be hot.,,, We shall leave by 8 am train for Sacramento so as to avoid the heat of the day only a two hour ride.  Play "Jim" [the Penman]  tonight.

Did the Palmer Company see any of Yosemite? John Muir and others persuaded Congress to preserve land as a national park in 1890http://www.yosemitepark.com/cultural-history.aspx Stockton is 150 miles from Yosemite. so it seems unlikely the they made that trip.

Stockton was once the gateway to Yosemite. Bay Area tourists stepped off their river boats at Weber Point and spent the night in swank downtown hotels, perhaps catching a show at the Yosemite Theatre before boarding horse-drawn coaches for the long and clattering ride up the Big Oak Flat Road.

Road to Yosemite began right here in Stockton 2014

The Weber House was Stockton's only first-class hotel for nearly twenty years, but in 1869 it was superseded by the Yosemite that the time it was erected one of the best in the state. The building, with a frontage of 102 feet on Main Street, with two wings having a depth of 60 feet and a central depth of 100 feet, was commenced in October, 1868, and completed  in July, 1869, by Hodgkins & Hall, at a cost of $40,000. The first story contained a reading room and office, together with a barber shop and bathrooms, a saloon, kitchen and dining-room capable of seating at party tables 110 persons. The second floor comprised a public parlor and ten private parlors or suites of rooms with oak, rosewood and walnut furniture,  marble washbowls and Brussels carpets. The sleeping rooms were all well-ventilated and were equipped with gas; running water and call bells. Speaking tubes in each hallway communicated with the main office. The bedrooms at the time commanded an extensive view of the city and county. The hotel was formally opened July 5, 1869, by Alexander McBean, and the owner of  the property that day gave a fine banquet to some 300 citizens and friends. The Eureka Engine Company, of which Henry Hodgkins was a member, had a dinner there the day previous, Sunday July 4th. The hotel was never a paying proposition and passing through many hands the hotel was closed when the Hotel Stockton was erected, [late 1880s] and converted into a lodging house.  An Illustrated history of San Joaquin County, California  Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1890, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/history/sanjoaquin/sanjoa-1923-192.txt

Stockton may be reached from San Francisco by steamer as well as rail and is an excellent starting-point for excursions to  Yosemite Valley, the Big Trees and other popular resorts. Appleton's Illustrated Handbook of American Winter Resorts 1884 http://books.google.com/books?id=tJtPAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22yosemite+house%22+stockton+hotels&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Online Historical Yosemite Books http://www.yosemite.ca.us/history/    
Mrs. Frank Leslie's 1877 trip west describes a visit to Yosemite inhttp://books.google.com/books?id=iKnuzoRCpqgC&vq=palace&source=gbs_navlinks_s  Section 16

Syracuse, New York
The Yates, Nov 18, 1892  This is a grand new hotel and elegantly furnished.  I have parlor & bedroom, $3 per day. 

On Sept. 17, 1892, the Yates Hotel opened opposite Syracuse's City Hall at Montgomery and East Washington Streets with a reception for 4,000 people. Built on the site of the 1891 Montgomery Flats fire, construction on the hotel took just over one year. The Romanesque Revival building was designed by Syracuse architect Archimedes Russell. Standing six stories tall, occupying almost an entire city block, and offering over 250 rooms, the Yates was called "the most elegant hotel outside Manhattan." It operated for almost 80 years, closing in March of 1971. A few months later, the final section of the building was demolished, falling into East Fayette Street. The site of the Yates Hotel is a parking lot today. http://www.syracuse.com/living/index.ssf/2015/09/this_week_in_history_-_the_elegant_yates_hotel.html

Yates Hotelhttp://www.rootsweb.com/%7Enyononda/PHOTOS/yateshot.jpg  
http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Enyononda/PHOTOS/yateshotel3.jpg  

Empire House 1896 In 1844, the Mansion House was replaced by the Empire House, a large hotel and business block that stretched around the northwest corner, from Genesee to Salina. The Empire block stood until it was destroyed by fire in 1942, only to be replaced by the Atlantic Building, predecessor of the modern newspaper blockhttp://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2011/01/history_comes_full_circle_in_s.html  postcardhttps://www.cardcow.com/461808/empire-house-clinton-square-syracuse-new-york/

Tacoma Washington
The Tacoma, Wm. H. Lee, Manager 1890

The Tacoma, June 23, 1890 This is a great country up here! And this is a very picturesque town. The cut of the hotel shows the front looking toward  Puget Sound.  The street and general entrances are on the other side, the building being alike on both sides.  I have a very nice room with a view of the surrounding hills and valleys.  Wish all my children were here to see it.  .  We hear that the hotel there [in Seattle] is better than this one, but the theatre will not be so comfortable. 

Tacoma, June 25, 1890  After Matinee 
Well we do go to Seattle for two nights -- returning and playing here on Saturday night.  Do not take our hotel trunks with us. 

I hadn't really thought about all the baggage until I read this.  What sort of suitcases (overnight bags? carpet bags?) did they travel with on such a short jaunt?

Nineteenth Century Hotels in the United States, Antiques Digest, orig. published 1927 http://www.oldandsold.com/articles25/hotels-15.shtml 

From 1883 — the first year passengers could ride the train uninterrupted from Chicago to Tacoma — to 1890, the population of Tacoma grew from about 5,000 to more than 30,000. The titanic Tacoma Hotel overlooked the harbor, and from its porch travelers and writers like Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling marveled at the speed with which a city under a volcano could be born. For all its explosive growth and buzzing activity, no observer (either traveling through or putting down roots) could overlook Tacoma's most distinguishing presence — the mountain. Michael Sullivan, A Mountain Calling: The Tacoma Eastern Railroad, Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History, 13 (4), Winter 1999

Built in 1884 and considered the grandest hotel north of San Francisco,  opened on August 8, 1884 and occupied an entire block of A Street between South Ninth and 10th streets. The five-story, 185-room structure — the creation of noted American architect Stanford White — burned down in 1935. Jack an 800-pound brown bear was a star attraction in the 1880s, often standing at the bar. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article25875187.html

Toronto

The Rossin House 
A. Nelson Proprietor
King & York Sts. 1892, 1893, 1894 

York Street, opened 1867http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/archives/becker_collections/images/rossin_house.jpg  Later Prince George Hotel

Queen's Hotel, Front Street, Toronto
http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/archives/becker_collections/images/queens_hotel_postcard_3880013.jpg 
The Queen's Hotel was on the site that now holds the Royal York [Fairmonthttp://www.fairmont.com/royalyork/] Hotelhttp://www.city.toronto.on.ca/archives/becker_collections/touring.htm

Toronto has been a tourist destination since at least the 1850s. Larry Becker,
http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/archives/becker_collections/touring.htm  
Victorian Advertising - Torontohttp://www.city.toronto.on.ca/archives/becker_collections/advertising.htm

Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates for the Rossin as $2 and up and Queen's as $3 and up.

Troy New York
AMERICAN HOUSE Geo A. Ross Prop.                    
Troy, N.Y. Novr 13^th 1892 

Utica NY Butterfield House  1886 John Butterfield built Utica’s largest hotel, the Butterfield House which opened in 1869 on the corner of Genesee St and Devereux St., The elegant hotel hosted many important people as they passed through Utica, including a reception for President Cleveland in 1887. https://oneidacountyhistory.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/the-mysteries-of-the-mug/comment-page-1/

Buttterfield House, Library of Congress between 1900 and 1915

Vancouver, British Columbia 

Sept. 1896
Manor House 
Telephone 222  The first (and only) hotel stationery to include a telephone number.
PO Box 572  Sept. 1896    

An 1896 Vancouver City Directory does not give a street address for the Manor House Hotel, but lists Dansmuir & Pend A Williams mgr, Clive P Wolley prop.http://bccd.vpl.ca/browse/title/1896/Vancouver_City_Directory  
1890 City Directory listed Howe and Dunsmuir as the address.  Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates for Manor & Leland as $1.75 and $1.50.

Washington DC
Willard's Hotel
O.G. Staples, Proprietor   Late of the Thousand Island House 1891   

The Willard Hotel (opened 1861) is still in business at 1401 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, but it is not the building EJ Phillips stayed at or where Julia Ward Howe composed the Battle Hymn of the Republic. (The present building opened in 1901). Mary Glen had tea there in  January 1992 with Linda Barrett Osborne and Sara Day from her first post- college job at the Franklin Mint (which was splendid preparation for this project). She also had meetings at the Marriott in the next block of Pennsylvania Ave. in 2000 and 2001, and was pleased to see how close the National Theater is (just beyond the Marriott) and how close the White House was and is, and to be walking in EJ Phillips' footsteps.   Cahn's 1897 Theatrical Guide lists rates for Willard's as $3 to $4. 

DeFerrari, John , Historic Restaurants of Washington DC,, 2013 has information on the Willardhttps://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781626191266


The Randall, Cor. Penna. Ave & 15th St.
Jno. T. Trego, Propr., Near Executive Mansion & Opp. US Treasury
Dec 4, 1894  I have the White House, Treasury Building and Park in view as I write and the theatre is next door to me.  From my window I can see the late Gen. Robert E Lee's residence across the Potomac.  Arlington the place is called and now the Soldier's Cemetery where Phil Sheridan is buried & other great men. 

Nineteenth Century Hotels in the United States, Antiques Digest, orig. published 1927  http://www.oldandsold.com/articles25/hotels-13.shtml  

The strenuous business of travel
The Pullman [sleeping] Car Co was organized in 1867, the same year the first hotel or buffet car was built and the first Pullman dinner car was run in 1868. 100 Years of American Commerce 1895

Climbing Pike's Peak 1883

New York, Feb. 23, 1886 Yes, I think I shall be happier even travelling to  S[an]. F[rancisco]  than I should be in having a four months vacation, although there will be very little money in it, after hotel bills are paid. Still it will be better than idleness. 

Boston, May 27, 1886  Where I shall stop in Chicago will depend upon how cheap the hotels are.  So at first direct your letters to McVickers Theatre.

San Francisco, Aug. 21, 1886 Oh! we leave Sacramento on Saturday night, closing our performances at the Matinee.  Direct [your letters] to Theatre A M Palmer Dramatic Co at every place - for I do not know until I get to the different towns, at what hotel I shall stop.  Sacramento has a State Fair going on and Races during the week we shall be there, so I suppose Hotels will be crowded and terms high.

Portland, July 1, 1890 Since I left Boston [in May]  I have been on the move all the time, and the past two weeks have been spent on railroads & in theatres.  We are here for a week, and although we are to give eight performances, still it seems a rest to be in one spot for even a week.  

Philadelphia, June 27, 1892  I may have considerable travelling to do, but I can live at first class hotels as cheap as I can live in boarding houses in New York.  

Baltimore Nov. 1, 1892   I am moving around so fast that I get very little time to write, but do the best I can.  On Saturday notice was put up that we left after performance for NY, to remain there over Sunday and leave at 10:10 AM Monday for Wilmington, so I not having anyone in New York to see, got permission to go on to Phila Sunday 9 AM train.  

Met the Co at Broad St at 12:20.  Reached Wilmington  at 1:30 or there about.  Played at night and left there nearly 1 AM for this town, reaching this hotel at 3 AM.  I did not get up until 12.  Took breakfast at 1 and since have been mending and getting clothes ready for wash. 

It was a great mistake bringing us from Wilmington last night.  We might better have had our rest there and have come on this Morning.  It is only a two hours ride -- 74 miles I hear is the distance.  We are badly managed with regard to travel and dates. 

Wyoming Valley Hotel, Wilkes-Barre Pa, Dec. 30, 1892 We arrived here at 5 PM yesterday, a ride of 12 hours, having left Johnstown at 5AM .  We had a long wait at Harrisburg and took dinner there.  Altogether this has been the roughest, most disagreeable week we have encountered.  Theatre cold & dirty.  Hotels not much better but this one is comfortable. 

Washington DC, Jan. 4, 1893 it was too early [5:30 am New Year's morning] for any of them [Hattie, John and Jack Dolman] to get up, so I went to bed and had three hours sleep which I much needed, having gone through a very hard week of travel.  Bad theatres & hotels and felt pretty tired.

Richmond, Virginia Jan 10, 1893 Glad that you have the prospect of good sleighing. I am tired of cold weather.  I wish they would take us down to New Orleans   You will see we are still jumping around the map and likely to do so until the 25th of June. We have a lot of traveling before reachingUnion Square Theatre on the 20th of March. 

Pittsburgh, May 11, 1893  I intend to take up my quarters in Brooklyn for next week, maybe at the Clarendon, but our agent has not sent on list of hotels & prices yet and when he does I may change my mind.  Mr. & Mrs. [George] Giddens are going to stop in Brooklyn so I shall not be alone. 

By May 18 she was staying at the Hotel St. George, Brooklyn.

Cleveland, Nov. 17, 1893 We go to Louisville for three nights.  Then to Evansville 1 night, Lafayette 1 & Peoria 1.  Three miserable bad towns,  hotels and theatres bad. 

Montreal, Jan. 23, 1894 Our trip was tiresome.  We left Rochester at 10:30 AM Sunday, got to Albany at 5 PM, waited there, in hotel, and sleeper, until 11 PM when we were started for this place. We suffered more from heat than cold - the sleeper was kept up to Summer heat all night - and was not at all refreshing but here we are. 

Chicago, Aug. 12, 1896  All ready to leave the hotel for shop where we give the 100th performance in Chicago of Gay Parisians and go to train as soon after as possible. Well dear I am off for a long trip.  If I can stand it, I will be improved by it, and whatever may come of it I do it for the best. 

Los Angeles, Sept. 6, 1896 Our ride to  Sacramento will be a hot and long one.  I thought a little physical preparation would be wise.  We shall be in  Portland,  Ore 14th, 15th and 16th.  The ride to Salt Lake City from Seattle will be a long hot one, two nights on the road.  Also from Salt  Lake to  Kansas will be hard, but it will be getting cooler by that time. 

Portland Sept 15, 1896  We leave 9AM on Thursday for Tacoma, about 4 hours ride by rail.  From there by boat to Victoria on Friday.  On Saturday by boat to Vancouver, back by boat to Seattle for Monday and Tuesday next - and from there to Salt Lake another two nights on train. From there to Kansas City. which will take two, if not three on train.  But then the hardest part of the travel will be over, but by that time it will have been pretty severe.

Vancouver Sept. 18, 1896  We arrived here by boat this Morning at 9 o'clock, but I did not get up here to this hotel until 10:30.  We left  Victoria at  2 AM having gone to the boat after performance and went to bed, but the boat did not leave until  2 AM.  We return the same way tomorrow.  Going from here to Victoria, change boat there and go through to Tacoma, or else we would have to get off the boat in Seattle at 4 AM, not a pleasant hour but by going through we get an undisturbed nights rest and leave for Seattle at 9.  Ride two hours on the water and get there at 11 AM Monday.  Play there Monday and Tuesday and then turn our faces homeward.  By the time this reaches you we shall be about leaving for Kansas City.  Then I shall be over 1500 miles nearer to you.  

We had a fine house last night in Victoria.  Arrived there 5:30 PM and boarded the boat at 12.  Boat started for this place at  2 AM.  Did not give me much time to get an idea of Victoria.  I shall be glad when we reach Kansas City.  Will have a few nights rest and hard travel will be over. 

Seattle, Sept. 22, 1896  We arrived here yesterday about 11 AM.  Had a foggy trip through Georgian Bay and Puget Sound.  All the beautiful views of the scenery were lost.  We have had fog ever since we reached Portland.  We leave here at  4 AM for Portland, remain there for seven hours and then start for Salt Lake.  Two nights or rather three, counting tonight on the train.  I do not think the trains are as tiresome as the boat.  We had to take three to get here from Vancouver, B.C. and all were propellers.  And the pumping noise of the machinery was too tiresome for comfort. 

Omaha, Oct. 25, 1896  We closed our engagement here last night, but do not leave until tomorrow at 10 AM to go to Des Moines, Iowa. Consequently we have a day of rest here, for the second time only since leaving Boston last Spring.  We are looking for another week of hard travels before reaching Milwaukee .  We shall have six hours of ride tomorrow.  Are due in Des Moines at 4:50 PM.  The next day we shall take quite as long in going to Burlington Iowa].  On Wednesday night we go on board a sleeper at Davenport to take us to Cedar Rapids,  Cedar Rapids to Dubuque and Freeport, Ill on Saturday night.  

We are still on the same old lines travelling and playing, but it seems a little more like hard work.  The journeys are long, tire-some & early rising quite fatiguing.  But I hope we shall be able to pull through all right and you, Albert and Ted will be able to come for dinner at Hattie's on the Sunday after Christmas. 

Pittsburg, Pa  Novr 28th 1894  Yesterday I was called to rehearsal and did not rehearse, and today no rehearsal for the first time in over five weeks.  Here I am living next door to theatre, which is also a great rest to me, and I am beginning to feel quite like myself. 

We played Camille the past two nights, and the curtain did not fall on last act until 10 minutes of 12 each night.  I being so near theatre got into my room at "14 of 12" but in New York and Philadelphia it used to be half past 12 before I got home, and it was very tiring to me. 

I used to get to 3219 Clifford Street [Philadelphia] at from half past 12 to one AM every night.  Get up at 10, take a breakfast and down to rehearsal, which would often not allow one time to go home to dinner, but I would get dinner at restaurant and go back to theatre to dress for performance.  On Morning of the night we produced Romeo & Juliet, it was 5 in the Morning when I got home, we having a rehearsal after the performance of the Transgressor which began at 1 AM and lasted for me until 1/2 past 4.  Then Hattie & I got into a cab and arrived home at 5 AM.  

EJ Phillips played the Nurse to Olga Nethersole's Juliet.

Pittsburgh, Nov. 30, 1896  I played at a Matinee on Thanksgiving Day in Toledo, at night, and on Friday night going to train after performance to be taken to Columbus, where we opened with a Matinee on Saturday and played Saturday night.  

The last two weeks that we thought would be comparatively easy turned out not to be, with the  St Louis week the three hardest weeks we have had.  We feel tired out but will have no travelling for a week.  And the theatre is almost next door so I hope to have a little rest before making my appearance in Phila. 

Am feeling almost too tired to be able to rest.  Think we shall have only two matinees this week, Wed & Sat & NO TRAVELLING.  Just think what a luxury!

Central Hotel, Charlotte, North Carolina, Feb. 16, 1897  We start at 1:30 in the morning for Asheville NC -- get there 3 PM.  Next Morning start earlier for Knoxville  -- have a change of cars and get there late in the afternoon.  But Mr. Zack has told me that after that - the trips will not be so hard. 

They are as follows Knoxville, Tenn., 18th Chattanooga, 19th Birmingham, Ala 20th, Macon, Ga 21st Sunday, 22nd Savannah, Ga 23rd Charleston SC, 24th Augusta Ga, 25th & 26th Atlanta Ga, 27th Pensecola, Fla [sic], 28th New Orleans for a week.  March 8th Cincinnati Ohio, 15th Phila, 22nd Harlem.  This is all I know so far.  I have heard we go to Buffalo and Chicago again -- but not officially.  Guess we will close about 1st of May. I am now going to take a rest - have not had my clothes off for two nights and feel uncomfortable. 

Knoxville, Feb. 17, 1897  Have had some heavy traveling and loss of sleep.  Left Asheville after performance last night at 1:30 AM.  Got here at 4:45 AM.  Went to bed soon as I got my room in the above hotel, and have remained there until 4:30.  Am now dressed & ready for supper. 

We leave after performance tonight at 4:30 in the morning.  Get to Chattanooga at 11.  Give a matinee at 2 and night performance.  Then leave for Birmingham, Ala but exactly when I cannot say - but the untimely hours and loss of sleep - and the extra matinee rung in on us.  

Saturday will be in Macon Ga., Savannah, Ga.  Tuesday Charleston, Wed Augusta, Ga., Pensecola, Florida and Sunday New Orleans, when we shall have a little breathing time for a week.  By that time hope to be able to tell you where we go after that - but at present it is doubtful. 

Atlanta, Feb. 1897  Play this afternoon and tonight - and leave very early in the morning for Pensacola Florida.  Play there tomorrow night and Sunday push on to New Orleans where we are to open on Sunday night.  

This has been a most trying two weeks I have ever gone through in travelling, and I do not think I could stand another two like them.  I look for pretty hard work and discomfort in New Orleans next week.  The crowds will be annoying and the accommodations very scarce and expensive, but I hope to pull through. 

They are sending some of the Co home to New York by boat - a five days ride, but Mr. Zack has said he will try and send me by rail - and I hope he will be successful.  I do not care for boating in March on the Atlantic Coast.

New Orleans, Mar. 2, 1897   I was so tired on reaching here Sunday Morning and playing Sunday night that I had to put off writing until today.  Great time of Mardi Gras is in full blast and processions and Balls & are all that people are thinking about.  We have had two big houses, but the fun ends tonight and the Fast begins tomorrow.  Then we may not do as well. 

I have had very hard work for the past two weeks, but this week will not be so hard, only two Matinees, and no travel.  We leave Sunday Morning and are due in Phila & New York Tuesday Morning,  thus ending the long run of Gay Parisians.  I feel that I need a rest and am not sorry -- much as I dislike to lose my salary. 

Money  Acting as a profession

Bibliography
Cahn, Julius, Julius Cahn's Official Theatrical Guide, Volume 2 1897http://books.google.com/books?id=JiUtAAAAYAAJ&dq=editions:LCCNsn92017447 has information on hotels and railroad stations
Historic Lodging   http://www.preservationdirectory.com/HistoricLodging/LodgingCategories.aspx

Last updated March 24, 2024

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