Month: February 2009

Categories
Historic Sites

Staying in Philadelphia: The Hotel Stenton and Hotel Walton

At the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, Philadelphia was home to several large and elaborate hotels. These hotels, including the Hotel Stenton and the Hotel Walton, provided lodging for travelers, apartments for Philadelphia residents, fine cuisine for both local residents and visitors to the city, and a meeting place for clubs and conventions.

The Hotel Walton, located on the southeast corner of Broad Street and Locust Street, opened in February 1896 and incorporated the Hotel Metropole, an earlier establishment on the same site. Upon its completion, the hotel featured a ladies’ restaurant, a gentlemen’s café, several parlors, a banquet hall, and 400 guest rooms (200 of which had separate baths). The hotel would eventually be known as the John Bartram Hotel before being demolished in the 1960s. The history of the Hotel Stenton is harder to determine. Located on the northeast corner of Broad Street and Spruce Street, photos of the hotel date to the 1890s. A 1942 city atlas, however, does not show the hotel at that location, likely indicating that it had been demolished or gone out of business by that time.

Several articles from the New York Times give insight into the clientele who frequented the hotels. On May 28, 1894, Miss Julia Marlowe, an actress, quietly married Robert Taber, an actor, at a small ceremony at St. James’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia attended by seven friends of the couple. While making preparations for the wedding, the reporter notes that Mr. Taber stayed at the Hotel Stenton. After the ceremony, the wedding party returned to the Hotel Stenton for a wedding breakfast before departing for New York. On September 17, 1901, the paper reports that a visiting English cricket team would reside at the Hotel Stenton while they spent time in Philadelphia for games with the local cricket club. In 1909, a group of female motorists on a two-day automobile run from New York to Philadelphia finished their competition at the city line. They were then escorted to the Hotel Walton for a reception where they were given an address of welcome by Mayor Reyburn.

Local hotels also provided housing and meeting space for individuals traveling to Philadelphia for conferences and conventions. From June 1-4, 1897, the American Medical Association held a semi-centennial meeting in Philadelphia. In a letter to The Medical News, a member of the organizing committee urged those planning to attend the meeting to make arrangements at one of the local hotels and provided a list of hotels and prices. The Hotel Walton offered lodging for $1.50 and upward per day on the European plan and $4 and upward per day on the American plan. The Hotel Stenton offered lodging for $2 and upward per day on the European plan and $4 and upward per day on the American plan. The European plan usually covered the cost of the room whereas the American plan covered the cost of both the room and meals at the hotel. The Hotel Walton also served as the headquarters for the Association during the meeting, and meetings of the Section of Physiology and Dietetics were held at the Hotel Stenton.

As they still do in the twenty-first century, hotels in Philadelphia in the nineteenth century provided lodging, both for travelers and city residents, and also served as social places where people could find a meal or gather for meetings and discussions. In the twentieth century, many of the older, independently run hotels would be purchased by larger business entities and change to reflect the desires of different generations of travelers.

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Categories
Events and People

Athletic Stars of the Sesquicentennial

The few spectators who braved high temperatures and pouring rains to attend the American Athletic Union (A.A.U.) National Track and Field Championships at the Sesquicentennial were able to view record-breaking athletic performances by many former and future Olympic athletes. A previous PhillyHistory.org blog entry discusses the accomplishments of Lillian Copeland, a triple gold winner in shot put, discus, and javelin. In addition to Copeland, other well-known athletes traveled to Philadelphia to attempt to win championships.


Phillip Osif, a student at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, gained national press attention when he won the six mile race in both the junior and senior men’s divisions at the Sesquicentennial competition. Osif beat Louis Gregory of Newark to win the junior title on July 3, 1926. Two days later on July 5, Osif trailed Ove Anderson from Finland for three miles before passing him to easily win the senior championship with a championship record time of 31:31. Osif continued to compete for the Haskell Institute throughout 1927. A member of the Pima tribe from Arizona, Osif was inducted into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977.

Another championship record was set by Clarence “Bud” Houser in the men’s discus competition. A well-known athlete in the weights events, Houser won gold in both shot put and discus at the 1924 Olympics while a student at the University of Southern California. The winner of the discus event at the 1925 A.A.U championships, Houser successfully defended his title in 1926 and set a new championship record of 153 feet 6.5 inches. Houser won gold again in discus at the 1928 Olympic games and was known for developing a technique of rapidly rotating around the circle before releasing the discus. After retiring from competition, Houser became a practicing dentist in California. He was inducted into USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1979.

Several women, some of whom would also compete in the Olympics, broke several championship records as well. Frances Davies, Jessie Glover, Florence Belle, and Rosa Grosse, competitors on the Toronto athletic team, won the 440 yard relay in 51 seconds, equaling the world record. Elta Cartwright tied the championship record for the 50 yard dash with a time of 6.1 seconds, successfully defending her title in the 50 yard dash from the 1925 championship. Nicknamed “Cinder” Elta, Cartwright qualified for the 1928 Olympic games in the 100 yard dash. While traveling to the Olympics in Amsterdam, Cartwright fell ill. Although she was able to compete, she was eventually eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100 yard dash. After retiring from athletic competition, Cartwright became a teacher.


Cartwright, Houser, and Osif are just a few of the many athletes who competed at the A.A.U. National Track and Field Championships at the Sesquicentennial. Despite the high caliber of competition, one newspaper reporter estimated that the inclement weather conditions caused as few as 350 spectators to attend one day of the competition. While the competition, like many other events at the Sesquicentennial, suffered poor attendance due to weather, hosting the athletic championship provides another example of one of the many ways that Sesquicentennial officials attempted to draw crowds to the Exposition.

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