Up to 1855, the principal hotels in Philadel phia were the Mansion House, the United States, the Washington City and the Girard House, and it was in that year that the .Burnett House, at Cincinnati, was opened with 250 bed rooms, besides many drawing-rooms, and espe cially spacious corridors. The Eagle Hotel, at Richmond, where Lafayette had stopped in 1824, was burned in 1840, and the Exchange and Ballard's were afterward opened. The Clarendon and the Irving House, in New York, were opened about 1850. The first Tremont House, at Chicago, which for some time was the leading hotel in that city, was opened about this time, while the Battle Houset Mobile, O the Saint Louis Hotel, at New Orleans, and the Saint Nicholas and the Metropolitan, in New York, were opened about 1852. All were large houses, and were conducted upon an ex pensive scale, while the two New York houses were particularly conspicuous in having intro duced "bridal chambers" and other novelties.
In 1854, the Brevoort and the Everett were opened, On the European plan, in New York; the famous Parker House, in Boston, also on the European plan, was opened in 1855, while the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in New York, was fin ished in 1859. It was the first hotel to intro duce a passenger elevator.
Willard's Hotel, at Washington, was the fo cus of many thrilling scenes and events during the Civil War, and among the houses that were opened during the next few years were the Lindell and Southern hotels, at Saint Louis; the Albemarle, Hoffman, Saint James and Grand, in New York, and the Arlington, at Washington. The Gilsey House, which was opened in 1871, in New York, at once took rank as one of the best European-plan hotels, while the Windsor House, in New York, be gan the successful career that ended so disas trously in the fire of 1899, in 1873. The Bruns wick, in Boston, and the Palmer and Grand Pacific, both iii Chicago, were opened about this time, while the Palace Hotel, at San Fran cisco, one of the most famous and palatial houses in the Far West, began to receive guests in 1875.
The last two decades of the 19th century were conspicuous, not only for the sudden in crease of new and more splendid hotels, but also for the enlargement and improvement of those already built, in every part of the coun try, while, in such a brief review of the hotel business, it is impossible to name all the ho tels worthy of mention that have been built during the past 25 or 30 years, it may justly be said that the revival of interest in the mak ing of new and better houses extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from our north ernmost boundary to the Gulf. Beginning with the Vendome and Young's, at Boston, the list would include the Narragansett, at Providence; the Grand Union, Park Avenue and Murray Hill, in New York; the Lafayette and Strat ford, at Philadelphia; the Rennet, at Baltimore; the be Soto, at Savannah; the Kimball, at At lanta; the Iroquois, at Buffalo; the Hollenden, at Cleveland; the Grand, at Cincinnati; the Cadillac and Russell, at Detroit; Auditorium, Blackstone and LaSalle, at Chicago; Plankin ton, at Milwaukee; the Ryan, at Saint Paul; the West, at Minneapolis; the Coates House, at Kansas City; Brown Palace Hotel, at Denver; the Portland, at Portland, Ore., and the
Tacoma, at Tacoma. The impetus to the hotel business, which began some 30 years ago, how ever, Ms continued up to the present time for the last few years have witnessed the construc tion of many new and finer hotels than any that had hitherto been built, among them being the Imperial, the Savoy, the Holland, the Wal dorf, the New Astor, the Martinique, McAlpin, Knickerbocker, Ritz-Carlton, Plaza, Belmont; Saint Regis, Vanderbilt, Biltmore, Pennsylvania and the Commodore, while one of the most unique experiments in the hotel line was the establishment of the Martha Washington, a hotel exclusively for women, which is success fully operated, also in New York.
The watering-place and summer-resort hotels also represent an important and rapidly increas ing branch of the business. At the beginning of the 19th century there were a few inns at places like Saratoga, while a tavern at the White Mountains was built by Crawford in 1803. In 1822, the Catskill Mountain House was opened, and, by 1840, there weregood houses at Trenton Falls and Delaware Water Gap. Twenty years later, Newport, Nahant, the White Mountains, Lake George, Saratoga, Niagara, Cape May, Old Point Comfort, and the Virginia springs, all had good hotel accom.. modations, but, since that time this branch of the business has grown to such an extent that splendid hotels are now located on almost every available spot on the coast from Maine to Flor ida, while the Adirondacks, the Catskills and many interior resorts have accommodations for guests that can compare favorably with the best hotels in the country. At such hotels the American plan usually prevails, as it does to a considerable extent throughout the smaller cities and towns. In the large cities, however, the European plan, which fixes a price for the room, and which charges for extra service and for each item on the bill of fare, has become more popular, for while, in some instances, the two plans are combined, it is the European plan that is generally followed by the large hotels. Moreover the charges at the best hotels are about twice as great as they were in 1850.