|
A Hotel?
Recent
findings have hinted that the Victorian Cliff House (1896-1907) may
have been a hotel, although this is not common wisdom. The
evidence...
Item 1, a
post-earthquake newspaper column (April 22, 1906) that claims someone stayed at the
Cliff House:
The NYT did not have a
follow-up story on Mrs. Joseph Schwab. But we do know that the
Cliff House did NOT slide into the sea as so many papers reported.
Item 2, a
stereoview (german?) which reads "Amrika, San Franzisko
Strand-Hotel "Cliff House":
German translation: strand
= beach
Item 3, The Cliff
House is listed in the telephone directory yellow pages under
"hotels" (courtesy
Ron Filion,
sfgenealogy.com):
But John Martini
notes that the definition of "hotel" during this period doesn't
necessarily mean imply lodging.
I went on-line and found the
following supporting evidence:
"The word hotel derives
from the French hotel, which originally referred to a
French version of a townhouse, NOT a place offering
accommodation (in contemporary usage, hotel has the
meaning of "hotel", and hotel particular is used for the
old meaning)." Source: Answers.com
http://www.answers.com/topic/hotel
Next, I found the following definition in Webster's
Revised Unabridged Dictionary for 1913, a date which is
pretty close to the time period we're concerned with:
"Hotel \Ho*tel"\, n. [F.
h[^o]tel, OF. hostel. See Hostel.]
1. A house for entertaining strangers or travelers;
an inn or
public house, of the better class." {NB; a public
house is a pub}
Finally, in Australia a hotel is defined as "a
tavern; pub." Again,
no lodging mentioned. Source:
http://www.artistwd.com/joyzine/australia/strine/h-3.php
Actually, this definition of hotel continues in use
today at finer restaurants (albeit in an abbreviated
form) where the fellow in charge is called the "maitre
d", which is actually short for "Maitre d'Hotel", French
for "a headwaiter or house steward."
Given Sutro's insistence that his Cliff House was
designed as a "French chateau", this theory may have
legs.
-John M |
John Freeman chimes in...
|
Listing the Cliff House as a hotel doesn't really mean
much, does it? The fashion of the time was to provide a
comfortable room for dinners to either sleep-off a night
of indulgence or for a little extra "dessert" with a
special dinner guest.
CASE CLOSED unless stronger evidence is found.
-John F |
A compelling supposition. But Zoe digs up fairly damning
evidence to the contrary...
So after all this, I still keep returning to the original newspaper
item posted above. If it wasn't a hotel, how
was poor Mrs. Corey residing at the Cliff house during her visit?
|
