Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 26, 1916, Page 40

THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: NOVEMBER 26, 1916. From the First Omaha Family Hotel to the Latest. a Bi It's & far cry from the first family b _ hotel in Omaha to the Blackstone— 5 the latest one. | * The first family hotel in this city ' | was the St. Nicholas. They called it “family” because everybody, guests and all, slept {n the same room in bad b weather. , In good weather the men folks all went outside and slept under | the wagons or wrapped in their blankets, with nothing over them but the sky. - When that hotel, the St. Nicholas, was completed, all guests came in a wagon or on horseback. They couldn't take a train because there was no rail- road closer than the Missizeippl river. They couldn't take a troliey car be cause they had not been imvented. They couldn’t walk from the nearest town because there wasn't any near est,town; they were gll far away. The St. Nicholas could be picked up, bodily, house, chimney and all, and put over in one corner of the Black- stone'’s office. In fact, the St. Nich- | olas could be placed in the writing | room at the Blackstone and there ' would be sufficient room left on all | sides for & procession of those who | used to live at the earlier hotel to pass round and round the ancient Lzilding. The St. Nicholas stood at Twelfth and Jackson streets, It was Omaha's first hotel. It was bullt of cottonwood logs, cut on the site of the building and its one room was just sixteen by eighteen feet. A Difference In Frame. All the building material used in the St. Nicholas would scarcely build a single room of the modern Blackstone, The Blackstone has §37,000 worth of steel in its frame, '!‘h- old 8t. Nich | Nook in Blackstone h' 3 olas didn’t bave any frame at all. A Loc few dollars’ worth of nalls was all the fron used in the frontier hotel Iron was so searce in Omaha in those days that the hinges on the door were made of wood instead of metal. As a fact there was but one door in the first family hotel in Omaha. There were no partitions in the build ing and consequently, there was nu ‘use for but a single deor. And that door was made of “puncheons”—slabs cut out of logs, not sawed. It was «00 far to a saw mill to get hold of . sufficient planking out of which to make a door. 8o the builders of the St. Nicholas spent a day.or two in cut. ting out thick puncheons for thepdoor. {. Now the Blackstone has so many ,doors. that the little old hotel’ at Twelfth and Jackson would be too small to hold them if they were taken from their polished brass and nickel hinges and nicely stacked up within the building. - As To Windows. There was a window in the St. Nich- b The Painting {n the Plcture Is “The Head of ne,” by Charles Stuart. Baked potatoes—baked in the ashes —corn pone, black coffee sweetened with New Orleans sugar, and an abundance of wild meat. That was the usual ménu of the St. Nicholas dining room. Just compare that with a menu from the Blackstone's dining room. But it would take an expert, the head chef of the Blackstone, for instance, to explain the difference. So don't try to compare them, Get the ing just about eighteen months. But the Blackstone is somew! elaborate than was Omaha and “only,” in those days. The St. Nicholas didn't have & kitchen stove. All the cooking in the establishment was done over the coals In the fireplace. That's the way they cooked the bear meat, the antelope, the vohni;on. and ::a bufl’::o sulxlnp. They had two or three pots and ket- tles, 8 big coffee pot and a frying pan | chef to explain to you. that was sometimes used as a wash' And the dishes. They had a set of basin if the little one-room hotel hap- ‘lh plates and also a set of ‘“iron pened to be crowded. And it didn’t|stone” china at the 8t. Nicholas. take many guests to crowd it, either, |There were some tin cups and some Imagine the chef at the Blackstone | iron stone cups. - The china was used planning his on special occasions, but not often. It the utensils of the St. Nicholas ost its weight in gold to which to prepare it. freight china out to the new country. The management of the Blackstons And there was too much danger of takes a pride in the equipment of its breaking a piece, evenp though the kitchens. Why, there's a single stove ineh In in the new hotel which would reach from end to end of the Bt. Nicholas Sieking out the window: 11 the Bt sticking ouf low, 0 olas—and the. Indians used to come|Nicholas cook had to prepare a meal 100 miles to see the wonder. They|for a dozen, there was grumbling and, couldn’t fathom the substance which |gometimes, actual ll? ml.l'bom fiwfi like spring it was an all-day's job. g but which they could not stick | the Blackstone serving dibner to twelve people—when there is room in their - 'l‘h‘g::'kmo has more glass in|one banquet hall for 360. And that just one basement window than theljs only one of the five or six dining St. Nicholas all told. rooms in the building. It was about 1863 that the St. Nich- No Menu Card. olas was thrown open to the public. bullding belonged to the Ne- numioum.umlmnu Co. icholas. They didn't have nele” Billy Snow- |things of that kind in Omaha in those . You ate that which was placed in those re you. And usually you were hungry enough to eat it all, too. Of . |course you could have two or three of venison, but you couldn't get a beefsteak for love or money. didn’t have such things in those ner with nothing bn: ware was a quarter of an thickness. What would be the result if the ghost of theold cook at the St. Nich- olas should get into the modern Blackstone and rlna the ancient “china” on the tables in place of the elaborate table ware which is used In the modern first-class family hotel? There would probably be a riot. And the beds. There were two in the one room of the 8t. Nicholas hotel. One fitted under the other and daring the day time was pushed beneath it.| They called it a “trundle” bed, because it could be trundled underneath the other one and gotten out of sight. It was the original disappearing bed of the trans-Missouri region. Hundreds of Beds. The Blackstone has hundreds of beds, most of them of the disappear ing kind, yet others are regular mahog- any beds of the latest models. Black- stone mattresses, npfln{; and bedding lare of the very latest sanitary sort. ° == “GROWING WITH GROWING OMAHA" Pioneer Glass and Paint Co. ' Furnished and Installed All Glass for the Blackstone Hotel We Are Also.General Distributors for Pratt & Lambert’s Products 438" Preservative--*‘61"’ Floor Varnish “Vitralite,” Long Life White Enamel : . Anyway, t imagine !g? g £ £ 5.8 g2 ] i i+ [ : E iz i g E ii i ; E® g £ Zouri *‘Safety’’ Store Front Construction Benjamin Moore & Co.’s x Pute Linseed Oil Paint, Sani-Flat and Muresco «VHVINO DNIMOAD HIIM DNIMOTD:, Pioneer Glass and Paint Co. “The House of Personal Service” 15th and Davenport Sts. “GROWING WITH GROWING OMAHA" modern Blackstone. Every apartment has an enamel lavatory with hot and cold water all the year. And the tiled bathtubs are things of beauty and con- venience. family hotel, the guests went outside, lighted their pipes and leaning back in home-made smoked until thme to go to bed. one little candle afforded by the hotel people did not even turn the night into twilight, much less_into the brilliant sunshine of the flaming arc or the soft | light globes. nor magazines similar to those fur- nished the guests of the Blackstone; there was no house library, of the music of the house orchestra, there was the evening song of thie coy- St. Nicholas bedding was somewhat | different. The ‘“ticks” were filled with sweet-scented hay. If there were any sheets, that fact has been forgot- | fi! ten, now. The bedstead was home- | i made. It was in one corner of thej room where it would not be in the way : j{§ of the cook, the waiter, the diners or || the dancers, J They sometimes had a dance at the St. Nicholas. It was not of the cabaret kind, either. Just plain dance. /i The music was made by an old fiddler. The dancing was done on the floor of latest one. ¢ Change Blackstone for the entertainment and pleasure of its guests. It’s a far cry from the first family botel in Omaha to the Blackstone—the HOW THE DIFFERENT | FLOORS WERE PLANNED FOR FAMILY USE | (Continued from Page T'wo.) the one room and the furniture must | b2 moved back against the wall. I Now, when they go to have a dance in the Blackstone hotel, the proposi- J tion is an entirely different one. There are two or three dancing rooms and if the crowd of dancers s large enough they adjourn to the big banquet and || tie arch effect, i | and mantel. orchestra halcony of thls room is larger than the whole of St. Nicholas hotel. © When a guest of the St. Nicholas hotel wanted to wash his face, he got [i} the tin washpan, fllled it with water |[f from the bucket and went to it. If he | wanted a bath, he went down to the Missouri river and got it. If it was | winter time, he didn’t want a bath. | They do things differently at the | | their receptions. I i cured. water, ice, ete. fruits, meats, ete. After dinner, at the St. Nicholas split-bottom chairs | | reation rooms. The [ oven. A Corner of One of the Blackstone rarty Kooms un the r;lgiml Floor. Guests of the St. Nicholas family | dents of the hotel. of the indirect incandescent There were no newspapers in. hotel epuld not run out to one of the clubs, go to the movies, go up to the music room, the lounging room, the billiard room, the roof garden, or the many other places provided by the in the west and the stars came out. After that, there was nothing to do but to retire. The guests had to go to bed in self-defense. There was nothing else to do. In those days, in ote from the hills as the light faded | Omaha, the night was made to sleep Instead the Blackstone. is new. | In Omaha—or the west. At the north end is {a small nook of a roof garden; at the south end, the orchestral balcony. The il | small lounging room is only 19x22 feet, il tbut the larger lounge is 47x22 feet. || Each of them has an open fireplace There's a soda fountain up here— ll land a refectory, where light lunches, | pastries and confections may be se- A service kitchen is one of | the equipments of the top fioor. i And the basement; you must see the ‘basement before you leave the build- ing, where they make cold air, cold See the big refrig- eration rooms with their milk, cream, Jrooms, the laundry, the paint shop, the carpenter shop, the storage rooms for the residents of the building, the fif- teen rooms for the servants, the ser- vants’ dining room, kitchen and rec- See the big baking || rooms, the pastry rooms, the great There is a billiard room with =4 | three tables and a barber shop. The heating plant is in an entirely _ separate building where none of the heat, smoke or dust can interfere with the pleasure and comfort of the resi- The roof has dancing hall on the eighth floor. The | E 20 R, | At the south end is the party room i 2x24 feet,-where the ladies may hold See the linen When Solomon said “There is noth- ing new under the- sun,” he had not seen the plans und specifications of For the Blackstone There is nothing like it. Wi iR One of the Corridor Davenports in the New Blackstone. \ WITH the opening of Omaha’s newest hotel, the ihgs that have bheen furnished and decorated throughout by the Orchard & Wilhelm Co. In its splendid lobby, in its beautiful dining room, in its luxurious lounging rooms, in its corridors and its many perfectly appointed suites is seen the completeness of the work of the artists and the artisans com- prising the corps of decorators that are a part of the Orchard & Wilhelm organization. g The task of furnishing a hostelry of the magnitude of the Blackstone is not merely one of selecting harmonious carpetings, hangings, furniture and wall coverings. It is of utmost importance that the expenditure be confined to a sum that will not jeopardize the possibility of profitable re- turns on the total investment. And more, the character of the furnishings must be such as to demand only a reasonable outlay for future replenish- ment. ’ Such are the problems in the furnishing and the decoration of build- ings like the Blackstone, the Scottish Rite Cathedral, the University Club, the Fontenelle and many others. You see in them the completed work, you are privileged to judge how well it is done. Permit us to suggest, that you consider the desirability of this store’s undertaking your own home’s decoration. Orchard & Wilhelm Co. 414-416-418 South 16th Street Blackstone, another name is added to the long list of public build- ot