By Terry Trucco
We’ll never know the identity of the enterprising employee who cleared his throat, stared down a guest and was remunerated for carrying a bag. But by the 1820s tipping the porter, like signing the register, was a ritual at hotels in New York and other big American cities.
Blame it on the buildings. Carrying bags wasn’t a problem for guests staying at small, squat colonial inns and taverns. But hotel architecture changed in the 1790s, with the advent of full-fledged hotels with complicated floor plans, writes A.K. Sandoval-Strausz in Hotel, An American History, a fascinating look at the evolution of the hotel.
With the first two floors consumed by an expansive lobby, grand ballrooms and spacious dining areas, guest rooms were relegated to the floors above. It became clear that guests would need help with their bags. (Elevators, aka “vertical railways,” didn’t appear until 1859 and were so costly only top-notch hotels had them.) (more…)