The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-06-05
NO 1oNeHR AnEAD IN norrIS.
Absorption 81 the City 81 ueusss Puts rev
York second-AmsFioaR Plan Deemed.

Absorption 81 the City 81 uou,ss Puts Bew
York secona-Americaa Plan Deemed.
New York, since its absorption Of Brooklyn,
Staten Island and other territory. has forfeited
one of its former distinctions: 1t was the Amer.
lean city having the largest hotel population. It
Is such no lsngor. Chicago is ahead Of II in this
particular. and Boston. San Francisco and Den
yer press 1t pretty closely. Tho reason Brook
Ign IL a city of homes. 1t has few hotels. New
York. in increasing its population from 1900.
900 to $500, 600. increased the number OF its
bona ndo hotels only from 24O to 800, 90 It's
hotel population was diminished relatively In
consequence.
The big date hotels, recently con-
structod, have undermined the popularity of
some Of the most celebrated caravanserios of
American cities. In Philadelphia, n few weeks
ago, tho Girard House was put up for sale by
auction. Tho stimsted value Of the site and
building is 3 l,250.o00 and 1t is said that an
offer OF that sum had previously boon declined
at the auction. The frst bid was $3.50. 900 and
tho last 100000, after which the property was
summarily withdrawn. The Girard was opened
In 1882, and for several years WAS considered
the finest hotel in that city. The Government
used the building as q mandatory OF soldiers
clothing from tho beginning. of the war until
1854, when II again became a hotel.
nent New York hotels which have been devoted
10 OInOT uses mas Do0n unusually large ana IN
cludes the New York Hotel. the Metropolitan,
the Brunswick, the st. James and the Victoria.
The transient hotel population of New York has
long demanded. and has obtained. great im.
provement In hotel accommodations, and there
are now but few remaining, examples of the old
fashioned American plan" hotels in New York,
and those which survive owe their endurance
in popularity to excellent management moro
largely perhaps than to any other cause.
An illustration of this changed condition In
hotel management, was shown recently in the
publication Of an ad vertisemont in THE Sun an
nouncinR that the Fifth Avenue Hotel would be
run on the European as we'll as the American
plan. The Fifth Avenue 10 almost a traditional
New York hotel. 1t was opened in 1859. 1t has
adhered stcadfastly. ever since to tho "Ameri.
can plan of including the meals furnished to
guests as an essential, and not as a conditional
part OF their entertainment, but even the Fifth
Avenue mas had to depart, or has found 1t de.
sirable to depart, from its long established usage
In this regard.
Like changes mark the hotel business of all
other cities of the country, notably Washington,
81. Louis, ana Chicago. The old fashioned hotel,
with its big dining room and colored walters,
with its broad rotunda. marble bar, and home
like reading room, has given place to an estnb-
ment OF q very different character. the modern
American hotel of gigantic proportions and pa
latial furnishings, a hotel in which not only
does the European plan prevail, but in the con.
duct OF which many European notions have
been adopted. Hotels on tho American plan :"
are mostly to be found in tho downtown dis
tricts of cities, and, as business buildings re-
place residences in such districts, the old-fash-
Toned hotels are abandoned.