Morning journal and courier., 1884-10-02
Family Hotels at Boston

Boston Letter to the chicago
 There is man here, Washington jeweler
 of no especial importance in the trade, who
 having made some money, built 8 small ho-
 tel, containing only four suites, on a lot of
 land originally intended for single dwelling
 house. It is pretty building, substantial,
 on the southeast corner of wide street,
 where three or four horse car lines constantly
 pass the door Each suite of five rooms oc-
 cupies floor; they are beautifully finished
 in hard woods, with every possible conven-
 fence, and they let respectively for from eight
 hundred to six hundred dollars year. It is needless to add, these suits are never vacant, or that the owner receives very handsome income from this little corner house. So fine an investment has led him to build two oth- CTS of the same caliber in pleasant parts of the city, which are likely to be as popular as l the first, for every flat in them was engaged l three months before they were finished. Of course these apartments are infinitesimal and could not be occupied by large family. I Probably the architect or the builder thought l only of mating doves, as there are no accom- modations for a superfulty ot furniture, though the new fixings of builder would fit | in eharmingly to the bright and cheery hooks and corners of these cunning nests. The agent of one of these new houses gleefully | told me the other day, when l applied for vacant apartment, that Fall are let and there are only nine people in the four suites!" "Is l the ninth a mother-in-law?" I asked, and | then went my way sorrowing, for I had 1 lonoed for piece of Naboth's vineyard. The hosts of second rate hotels lacking steam ! heat and sunny outlooks I pass by, but I ! have seen enough of them lately to make me wish they would all burn down.
 1 The elegant family hotels that have sprung l up on the Back Bay are rather overwhelming ! to people with moderate incomes, and some | of them are really no better than hives. The 1 rents in them do not fall below nine hundred | dollars for two rooms, and touch the beam at l twenty-five hundred for a large suite in one
 of the newest hotels pointing toward the set | ting sun. And these prices do not include ! board or admit of housekeeping on the prem | ises You must live on the European fash 1 ion in the restaurant or the hotel, or go out | to your meals. Boston is fast tread1ng on 1 the heels of New York's expensive hVlng, | though as yet it does not go into as much horse flesh and coupe. But what are people l who do not wish to live in apartment hotels 1 at a cost of six or seven thousand dollars l wear ooinp to do? asks the head of the house. 4 si1ole suite unless of extraordinary d1- | mansions, is no place for children, tnough | children are by no means rarity Tn the smallest of them. One of the hotels visit | ed recently evidently had it's full share of olive branches, for half dozen little girls l were amusing themselves by sliding down l the banisters as I entered the hall. ob- served they would break their necks if they 1 did that, and was informed by the crowd, | s'They slid down every day and never broke 1 any child's neck.'' Whereat turned and de- parted as I came, believing that house, at any rate, would be no place for lovers ot peace and quiet to live in.