Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-05-18
The Cen,inen,al-Phil.delphi.,, new H.,el


lFrom the New York Home Journal Of May5l
Let New-Yorkers say what they will, Phila-
deipnlans are progressive people; how can they
help 1t, with their more than balfmillion Of in
baoltants! Possessing many advantages. over
New York (say In plenty of land -room. while we
have only sea-room), they are determined not to
be oehindhand in luxuries, while they are in ad-
vance Of us In many positive comforts. Always
clean, neat fair, and blooming, as one of lis own
charming Quakeresses, philadelphia has wanted
only metropolitan hotel TO give IL metropolitan
rank And by this we don't mean a mere marble
pie, great only In the vastness Of Its bar and
dining rooms, and wonderfully small In its pro-
visions Of home comforts, and in the supply of
delicate and refined home necessities; but we
mean as good substitute for an ele2 ant home as
1t is posslble for hotel to be- Philadelphia, Of
course, has had hotels ever since BENJAMIN Frank
lin bought and ate the penny roll for his breakfast
IN us sIees because he could not afford 10 stop
one out OF late years they have been nooriously
insufficient in number Many Lbs raj Philade,-
phia merchants, who Were conscious of their
city dehciency In this respect, united together
ana, selecting the finest site in the city-the cor
ner of Ninth and Chestnut streets-the result wns.
First, the erection Of what is admitted To be one
ofthe most complete hotel structures in the world
at an expense Of eight hundred thousand dollars
the building covering an acre of ground; and
being interiorly covered with We acres of CARPET,
Second, the expenditure of over two hundred
thousand doilarsin rich and appropriate furniture
w hat an effect a million of dollars can produce
In architecture and elegance we have no room TO
describe The magnificent entrance. the grand
staircase, the unique upper corridors from which
the ladies, unobserved, may watch the throng be-
low; the draperied drawing rooms and noble
dining halls, lighted up with the beauty and
brliiiancy of fairy palace (rather than demo-
cratic hotel, in which every can be a uillion-
aire for two dollars and half a day) are nm
equaled in this country. And then In the mag
| nlncent private rooms, we have velvet TO walk
| upon instead of worn and dusty ingrains; hot
ana coio water to the touch, instead of cracked
1 pitcher; crate, set in marble In place of the
rusty stove; and IL we n1RSt go up stairs Ito use
an Hioernianism), tce DON'T do IL at all, but are
lifted up from the bottom Of the house TO the top
by steam, as gently and safely as a nurse raises a
| child from the cradle But, potent dollars are
| and especially million Of them put together
| they could not have accomplished this without
| the direction OF consummate experience and taste;
| so the Philadelphia merchants very wisely secured
| Mr. Paran Stevens-already the proprietor Of the
Revere and fremont Houses in Boston; the Fifth
| Avenue House in New York, and the Battle and
| Point Clear Houses in Mobile, as the lessee How
| few men there are who can keep a hotel, the
complaints of travellers and repeated failures in
| the business abundantly show. The admnistra-
tive ability that is always munifcent, but never
| wasteful-that knows how to do all things at the
| right time and in the right ways rare In a
| hotel proprietor as In a general The magnificent
Continental Is Colonel Stevens last and best I'M
| dertaking, and in charge of MIR. James + Ste
vens, under whose personal direction the estab-
| lishment will remain, promises to be one of the
most successful AS Philadelphia is noted for its
superior heathfulness the beautiful drives about
its suburbs, the hospitality of its inhabitants its
now for its luxurious hotel, IL will become one of
the most popular Tedez for touri sts especially
from the south and southwest, that can be found
in the United States