The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-10-01
OLD AND NEW HOTELS.
PHILADELPHIA PHILoSOPHI-
 zES IN THE PRESENCE
Of Her First Really PaIatia1 Hotel.

Of Her First Really PaIatiaI Hotel.
 The passing of the dingy and delight ful old Bellevue into the palatial new Bellevue-Stratford is an event of some significance in the social history Of Philadelphia. "The old order changeth, yielding place to new" It is an inter esting coincidence that on the same day ! which marked the triumphant fitting of the Bellevue, the last relics of a place which had held a somewhat similar po- sition generation earlier were sold by | the sheriff's auctioneer. Guys was only one of many once famous hotels ] and restaurants which have passed iaway with the men who frequented ! them or with the conditions which sus- tained them. The Bellevue was the i very last of long tine that could be traced in continuous succession from the Old London coffee house of the CO., lonial and Revolutionary period. At the close of the nineteenth century 1t was the analog of the coffee-houses or taverns of the eighteenth century, the E4SSSAL VI S1S hAlc e4llu DeonA Ol lAtS town" and of those later restaurants, ale-houses or oyster cellars" which served the elder Philadelphians, in the palmy days before the war. as familiar meeting places. .. .-
 In these days there was but one ac- ttual club In Philadelphia, and various
 coteries of professional men, business
 men. men of letters or men about town
 had each it's favortte rendezvous at some more or less distinctive resort There Is not space here to trace the his- tory far back, through the long line of famous caterers who have at all times (been intimately and honorably associa- lted with the history of Philadelphia. At a period still within memory, Petry's on Walnut street, above Third--in what has been the town house of Judge Pe- ters of Belmont-Was the distinctly fashionable restaurant. Petry alter
 ward moved out Walnut street, but his
 day was already past, and he fell me
 fore the newer force of Boldt But the negro caterers long held their own
 against all rivalry No foreign chef
 could serve terrapin as could Augustin
 or Minton, and there was an important
 group of intellectual gourmets who fre- x quented Prosser's. where the cellar was
 divided in little stalls like a London
 tavern. Other groups had other gather ing places, often in out-of -the-way
 corners, Sometimes the particular att
 traction was the oysters or the ale:
 sometimes the personal association. In.
 each case these often shabby and se- I i, c of the modern club, and the rapid in. crease of clubs life in Philadelphia will
 sufficiently account for their gradual extinction,
 The modern restaurant is another
 thing altogether. It was the distin- tguishing achievement of George Boldt to combine the two Coming from what had long been known simply as "the club' he preserved in the original {: Bellevue much of the character and att
 mosphere of q club, while establishing for his kitchen reputation that be- came worldwide. Upon this reputa-
 ton he has built a triumphant career
 as hotel manager that has made him
 fame and fortune; but the peculiar po-
 sition which this now outgrown inn has
 so long held was largely due to the fact
 that it was not really hotel but an
 adapted dwelling, with club-Iike If not
 home-like suggestion, a sense of per-
 sona1 welcome and attention and al-
 most personal proprietorship, which.
 gave to it., for a very large and conn prehensive circle of Philadelphians and their visitors, an attraction which not
 even their own clubs could offer.
 It will be impossible to feel this do-
 nestle ease in the marble halls on the other side Of Walnut street. It was the Hast survival of conditions that have
 passed away. The city has grown too
 big; society is too comprehensive; life lis too strenuous and It's demands too great to be satisfied with the old sim- Iplcity The same genius that gave a
 modern turn to the old restaurant when
 1t had served it's time now expands
 again in the great modern hotel. This means much for Philadelphia. A really great hotel of the first class, the equal If not the superior of any that the tray-
 eler can find elsewhere, has been one of ! the city's needs universally recognized. l The new Bellevue -Stratford, combining ] namea everywhere associated with ex- cellence of service, more than removes this old reproach, and creates here 8 new center of metropolitan interest and activity whose potential importance to the whole city cannot be overrated. It is not axaggeration to say of it. in the well-worn phrase, that it may mark an epoch in the material as well as in the social evolution of the municipality. At the same time 1t does not wholly sever
 the links that bound us with the past.
 The old-tiners will lament the modest
 little Bellevue, as they have lamented
 the still older "institutions'' which 1t re-
 placed; but something of the well-es-
 tablished traditions must be carried
 over into the new splendor, and we may
 look upon the change as a type of that
 evolution which is transforming the old Philadelphia into modern city, that
 can not only look backward, but look forward as well-Philadelphia4 Public Ledger,