3 ms·

Impressions of American Hotels 1883-1898 (2022)

63 points by samclemens 3y ago

lqet 3y ago
Sadly, no photographs of late 19th century American hotels are given. I found this post which has some nice photos: https://www.vintag.es/2017/05/41-rare-photos-of-american-hotels-from.html https://www.vintag.es/2017/05/41-rare-photos-of-american-hot...
- JoeAltmaier 3y ago
  Our downtown hotels are late 19th century. So I just have to turn my head slightly to the left as I walk to breakfast at a cafe :)
jseutter 3y ago
Had a chuckle at this excerpt: "The guests feel struck with awe in that dining-room, and solemnly bolt their food as quickly as they can. You hear less noise in an American hotel dining-room containing five hundred people, than you do at a French table d’hôte accommodating fifty people, at a German one containing a dozen guests, or at a table where two Italians are dining tête-à-tête." The author clearly has a ranking of how much each nationality speaks while eating :)
- fennecfoxy 3y ago
  I thought this was hilarious, too. And I'm so sending it to my Italian friends.
- midoridensha 3y ago
  It's actually really interesting, because it's nothing like that these days. Now, it's the Americans who are easily the loudest people in the room.
36963386throw 3y ago
[Great read, thanks /samclemens!] The menus are out of control! https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2btNg0R6uCFyZlpBihPwuQjEcy1jP1lhH5xcyyT8quwD-G45FBodAw3VIY1BJmBkQmtFoh_uY-LTYEBuu1uotItCea8TvLFqF9MqM-LTGmMw2SZcuzxPLDRkf3jt28rGvUbFdnB0EQJsocgPfxEje7l8x_mNrVhPlDVoyEu2CD4YonoP2eDq3_gAL/s2149/img166%20(2).jpg https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh...
- krisoft 3y ago
  True. Altough that is the menu of a special event. The annual Game Dinner at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago. You probably shouldn’t expect Antelope Steak there everyday.
  - kevinmchugh 3y ago
    In the middle of the 19th century, the US was known as a place where animals were in such abundance that you could get an incredible variety of meats. Check out The Market Assistant: https://books.google.com/books?id=2z4EAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=market+assistant&hl=en&ei=eGxYTOWNAYy2ngfln4znCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=2z4EAAAAYAAJ&printsec=fron... The game section is where the goods are, and starts getting good around page 123
    - zgluck 3y ago
      With a 15x smaller (human) US population in 1850 compared to today that makes sense.
underlipton 3y ago
The theatrics read like a caricature of European elegance, which is what I imagine they were. I had a conversation with a family friend the other day, an age-old exercise in trying to reconcile the often contradictory movements of the American sociopolitical body. It suddenly occurred to me: not for morals or money, on either side, but, ultimately, to avoid humiliation on the global stage. We don't want to be seen as backwards, a backwater, underdeveloped, unserious, unsophisticated. So: we build railroads, we build skyscrapers, we tear down Jim Crow, we go to the moon. And, occasionally, we take the wrong impression of what would impress our international neighbors and it backfires, apparently. Still, if only we could harness this proclivity for healthcare and housing or guns... I suppose the starkest signal of the breakdown of American stability is that not even the embarrassment of being the odd, terrible one out on those issues has spurred us to action.
- pizzaknife 3y ago
  Love it but where does Ketchup fit in?
  - underlipton 3y ago
    I don't get the reference. OR "You don't want to know."
op00to 3y ago
This guy sounds like a real joy to travel with.
fennecfoxy 3y ago
As an aside, I hate layouts that are a single narrow column with a huge swathe of space on either side. It's hard to get into the flow of reading when having to move to a new line constantly. (never mind, even Hacker News reformats my example for me)
- teh_klev 3y ago
  You might want to read the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html "Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting."
  - fennecfoxy 3y ago
    Oh, my apologies.I'll refrain from doing that in the future! It's like I'm, standing in front of a mirror and saying "Dang" three times, ha ha.
teh_klev 3y ago
If you enjoy this style of writing with its pithy observations then I can recommend J.P. Donleavy's "The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival & Manners": https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unexpurgated-Code-Complete-Survival-Manners/dp/0140042822 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unexpurgated-Code-Complete-Survival... I read this on a train and the tears were dripping off my face whilst trying to control my laughter. I got plenty of funny looks. Donleavy's "The Ginger Man" is also well worth a read.

63 points by samclemens 3y ago

lqet 3y ago

Sadly, no photographs of late 19th century American hotels are given. I found this post which has some nice photos: https://www.vintag.es/2017/05/41-rare-photos-of-american-hotels-from.html https://www.vintag.es/2017/05/41-rare-photos-of-american-hot...

JoeAltmaier 3y ago
Our downtown hotels are late 19th century. So I just have to turn my head slightly to the left as I walk to breakfast at a cafe :)

jseutter 3y ago

Had a chuckle at this excerpt: "The guests feel struck with awe in that dining-room, and solemnly bolt their food as quickly as they can. You hear less noise in an American hotel dining-room containing five hundred people, than you do at a French table d’hôte accommodating fifty people, at a German one containing a dozen guests, or at a table where two Italians are dining tête-à-tête." The author clearly has a ranking of how much each nationality speaks while eating :)

fennecfoxy 3y ago
I thought this was hilarious, too. And I'm so sending it to my Italian friends.
midoridensha 3y ago
It's actually really interesting, because it's nothing like that these days. Now, it's the Americans who are easily the loudest people in the room.

36963386throw 3y ago

[Great read, thanks /samclemens!] The menus are out of control! https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2btNg0R6uCFyZlpBihPwuQjEcy1jP1lhH5xcyyT8quwD-G45FBodAw3VIY1BJmBkQmtFoh_uY-LTYEBuu1uotItCea8TvLFqF9MqM-LTGmMw2SZcuzxPLDRkf3jt28rGvUbFdnB0EQJsocgPfxEje7l8x_mNrVhPlDVoyEu2CD4YonoP2eDq3_gAL/s2149/img166%20(2).jpg https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh...

krisoft 3y ago
True. Altough that is the menu of a special event. The annual Game Dinner at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago. You probably shouldn’t expect Antelope Steak there everyday.
- kevinmchugh 3y ago
  In the middle of the 19th century, the US was known as a place where animals were in such abundance that you could get an incredible variety of meats. Check out The Market Assistant: https://books.google.com/books?id=2z4EAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=market+assistant&hl=en&ei=eGxYTOWNAYy2ngfln4znCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=2z4EAAAAYAAJ&printsec=fron... The game section is where the goods are, and starts getting good around page 123
  - zgluck 3y ago
    With a 15x smaller (human) US population in 1850 compared to today that makes sense.

underlipton 3y ago

The theatrics read like a caricature of European elegance, which is what I imagine they were. I had a conversation with a family friend the other day, an age-old exercise in trying to reconcile the often contradictory movements of the American sociopolitical body. It suddenly occurred to me: not for morals or money, on either side, but, ultimately, to avoid humiliation on the global stage. We don't want to be seen as backwards, a backwater, underdeveloped, unserious, unsophisticated. So: we build railroads, we build skyscrapers, we tear down Jim Crow, we go to the moon. And, occasionally, we take the wrong impression of what would impress our international neighbors and it backfires, apparently. Still, if only we could harness this proclivity for healthcare and housing or guns... I suppose the starkest signal of the breakdown of American stability is that not even the embarrassment of being the odd, terrible one out on those issues has spurred us to action.

pizzaknife 3y ago
Love it but where does Ketchup fit in?
- underlipton 3y ago
  I don't get the reference. OR "You don't want to know."

op00to 3y ago

This guy sounds like a real joy to travel with.

fennecfoxy 3y ago

As an aside, I hate layouts that are a single narrow column with a huge swathe of space on either side. It's hard to get into the flow of reading when having to move to a new line constantly. (never mind, even Hacker News reformats my example for me)

teh_klev 3y ago
You might want to read the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html "Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting."
- fennecfoxy 3y ago
  Oh, my apologies.I'll refrain from doing that in the future! It's like I'm, standing in front of a mirror and saying "Dang" three times, ha ha.

teh_klev 3y ago

If you enjoy this style of writing with its pithy observations then I can recommend J.P. Donleavy's "The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival & Manners": https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unexpurgated-Code-Complete-Survival-Manners/dp/0140042822 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unexpurgated-Code-Complete-Survival... I read this on a train and the tears were dripping off my face whilst trying to control my laughter. I got plenty of funny looks. Donleavy's "The Ginger Man" is also well worth a read.