stan turkel
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 251: Wish You Were Here: A Tour of America’s Great Hotels During the Golden Age of the Picture Post Card
Stanley Turkel | July 14, 2021
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: “Wish You Were Here” by Barry Zaid (1980) In February 2000, there was a unique exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: “Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard”. Evans was a titan of 20th-century photography who portrayed broken-down plantations, sharecropper families and bone-dry Southern farms during the Depression, grimy factories in the North and the facial expressions of New York subway passengers. Evans collected picture postcards throughout his life during the golden age from 1900 into the 1920s. This phenomenon was spurred by the United States postal service...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 250: Hotel History: Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York
Stanley Turkel | June 22, 2021
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS In 1869, Albert Smiley, a nature-loving Quaker schoolteacher, bought a property at a good price; 300 acres surrounding a lake and a tavern in a spectacular natural setting in the heart of a 26,000-acre area in the Shawangunk Mountains, New York. Alfred and Albert Smiley, devout Quaker twin brothers, created the resort in 1869 when they bought Mohonk Lake from John F. Stokes. As the Smileys expanded the hotel, they operated in accordance with their Quaker beliefs: no alcohol, dancing, smoking or card playing. The hotel offered concerts, prayer sessions, lectures as well as swimming, hiking and boating. Under the...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 249: Hotel History: Ocean House at Watch Hill
Stanley Turkel | June 1, 2021
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Ocean House at Watch Hill (49 rooms) Ocean House is a large, Victorian-style waterfront hotel originally constructed in 1868 on Bluff Avenue in the Watch Hill historic district of Westerly, Rhode Island. The original 1868 hotel closed in 2003; it was demolished in 2005 and a new facility opened in 2010 on the same site which retained much of the original structure’s form and appearance, as well as the original name. Both the original and its reconstruction are noted for their rambling Victorian architecture and distinctive yellow siding. The original Ocean House was the last waterfront...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 247: Hotel History: Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas
Stanley Turkel | April 20, 2021
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Driskill Hotel (188 rooms) The Driskill, a Romanesque-style building completed in 1886, is the oldest operating hotel in Austin, Texas, and one of the best-known hotels in Texas. The Driskill was conceived and built by Col. Jesse Driskill, a cattleman who spent his fortune constructing “the finest hotel south of St. Louis”. Flush with cash from his service to the Confederate Army to which he supplied beef throughout the Civil War. In 1884, Driscoll purchased land in downtown Austin for $7500 and announced plans for a new hotel. Today, the Driskill remains one of the premier hotels in Austin, fe...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 246: Hotel History: Hotel McAlpin, New York, N.Y. (1912)
Stanley Turkel | March 30, 2021
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Hotel McAlpin (1,500 rooms) The Hotel McAlpin was constructed in 1912 by General Edwin A. McAlpin, son of David Hunter McAlpin. As well as being the world’s largest hotel, it was also one of the most luxurious. The amenities were as breathtaking as they were opulent including a massive Turkish bath and plunge pool on the 24th floor. The hotel also had its own in-house orchestra, as well as its own fully-equipped hospital. When construction of the Hotel McAlpin neared completion by the end of 1912 as the largest hotel in the world, The New York Times commented that it was so tall at twenty-five...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 245: Boone Tavern Hotel, Berea, Kentucky (1855)
Stanley Turkel | March 9, 2021
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Boone Tavern Hotel (63 rooms) Built on the old Dixie Highway and named after Kentucky explorer Daniel Boone, the historic Boone Tavern Hotel is located on College Square in Berea, Kentucky. The hotel is owned by Berea College and operated with student workers from the College Labor Program. Students earn money for books, room and board but pay no tuition (valued at $25,500 per year), thanks to the generosity of donors who support Berea College's mission of providing a free high quality education for students primarily from Appalachia who have high academic potential and limited financial resourc...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 244: Hotel History: Wormley Hotel
Stanley Turkel | February 16, 2021
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Wormley Hotel (150 rooms) James Wormley, a pioneering Black nineteenth-century businessman opened the first integrated hotel in Washington, D.C.. He was also known for his business acumen and lobbying efforts to secure adequate funding for the first Washington, D.C. public schools for black Americans. Wormley was born to Pere Leigh and Mary Wormley. Both parents had lived as free people and servants with a wealthy Virginia family prior to moving to Washington, D.C. in 1814. On January 16, 1819, while living in a small, two-room, brick building located on E Street, near Fourteenth Street, nort...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 243: Hotel History: Hotel Roanoke, Virginia
Stanley Turkel | January 26, 2021
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Hotel Roanoke, Roanoke, Va (332 rooms) Roanoke was a little town named Big Lick when enterprising railroad magnate Frederick J. Kimball chose it as the site of a major railroad juncture. After Kimball combined two of his railroads into the Norfolk and Western Railroad, he built a comprehensive community with the Hotel Roanoke as its grand centerpiece. Built in a wheat field on a little hill, the Hotel Roanoke began as a rambling wooden structure of less than three dozen rooms. As the city grew, the railroad consistently provided resources for hotel additions, remodeling and furnishings to maint...
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