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<\/a>There was an instant demand for the Martha Washington Hotel\u2019s rooms when it first opened in Manhattan. The hotel allowed no male guests, no smoking, and no alcohol. A problem soon arose, however: although it opened with a nearly all-female staff, males soon had to be employed for certain jobs such as bellboys \u2013 and they objected to the female guests\u2019 no-tipping policy.<\/p>\n
As the following eight contemporary newspaper articles show, there was a range of reaction in the nation\u2019s press to this new concept of a women-only hotel.<\/p>\n Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n Martha Washington Hotel<\/strong><\/p>\n Between three and four hundred women are now making themselves at home at the new Martha Washington Hotel for women on East Twenty-ninth street, New York. They moved in one night, bringing with them piles of baggage. \u201cThere were no exercises,\u201d says the Sun. \u201cThe women walked in and took possession, just as calmly as a crowd of drummers or confirmed travelers might. Women of every description were there. They included professional women, women with their hair rolled back from high foreheads, women truly frivolous and feminine in fluffy sorts of evening frocks, women who carried lorgnettes [i.e., eyeglasses] and missed nothing, the shyer kind who shrank behind the shelter of some potted palm, women from Brooklyn, women from Terre Haute, working women and confessed idlers.\u201d<\/p>\n This article was published by the New York Times<\/em> and reprinted by newspapers around the country.<\/p>\n Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n The Woman\u2019s Hotel.<\/strong><\/p>\n New York Times.<\/p>\n There are over 300 applications for rooms at the Martha Washington hotel, on East Twenty-ninth street. A charming woman coming from Washington recently was a guest at the hotel for one evening. She said that it was impossible for her to eat her dinner in the dining room, as she had never seen so many women gathered together without the relief of a black coat. There was an orchestra and a gentle murmur of conversation. After dinner women thronged about the office and lobbies, and it seemed an Adamless Eden.<\/p>\n Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n LACK OF MIRRORS ABOUT NEW YORK WOMEN\u2019S HOTEL<\/strong><\/p>\n Not a Glass Could Be Found on the Reception Floor of a Large Hostelry.<\/strong><\/p>\n NEW YORK, June 21. \u2013 The Martha Washington Hotel, in this city, for women exclusively, was supposed to be perfect, but a defect has been discovered which is agitating all of the 500 women the hotel shelters. There is not a single mirror on the second floor, which is the public promenade of the hotel. Through a suite of drawing-room, library, writing-room, etc., the \u201cpermanents\u201d proudly conduct their guests to show how a women\u2019s hotel should look. It is on this floor also that the women guests assemble in their best attire on dress parade, just as they do in Peacock alley at the Waldorf-Astoria.<\/p>\n A recent incident called attention to the grave defect in the hostelry. A party of women was being shown over the parlor floor when one who wore a wonderful flower-bedecked head grew increasingly pensive. The signs were unmistakable. After an unusually protracted pause she ejaculated, suddenly: \u201cI have an inward conviction that my hat is on crooked.\u201d Her eyes hunted the walls for a mirror, but none was in sight. A search of the entire floor developed the fact that there were no mirrors. There is little doubt there will soon be many mirrors on the walls of the parlor floor.<\/p>\n Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n What Did She Want?<\/strong><\/p>\n An angular looking woman went into the Martha Washington hotel and asked: \u201cIs this the women\u2019s hotel I have heard so much about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is,\u201d answered the clerk.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you let people smoke here?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you keep a bar?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan men come here and stay?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you permit dogs?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnder such regulations as hold good in first class hotels.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s all,\u201d said the woman, as she turned away.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you wish a room?\u201d asked the clerk.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not wish a room,\u201d came the response, with emphasis.<\/p>\n That left the clerk wondering. Was she asking for mere curiosity? Did she decline a room because no drinks were served, and smoking not permitted? Would she go to no hotel where men were barred? \u201cIt beats me,\u201d said the clerk, \u201cand yet she was a very respectable looking old girl, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n Guests of the Martha Washington women\u2019s hotel in New York City put out a promising blaze in a trunk-room on the 11th<\/sup> floor, Sunday, by bringing their full water-pitchers, and dousing the flames, which in five minutes would have got beyond such control. The battalion fire chief, when he came, complimented the women, said they ought to organize a fire brigade, and that they had set an example to all tenants of apartment hotels. And yet it is regarded as a strong objection to women\u2019s voting that they cannot act efficiently in emergencies and are lacking in fighting courage. Men could have done no better work than the Martha Washington hotel women \u2013 and the chances are they would never have thought of the pitchers.<\/p>\n Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n NOT A PLACE FOR HONEYMOONS<\/strong><\/p>\n Manhattan\u2019s Martha Washington Hotel Puts Ban on Such Patronage.<\/strong><\/p>\n New York, April 25. \u2013 A slender girl in dove-color clothes and a tall young man with a slouch hat and two valises, who said they were from Boston, went into the Martha Washington Hotel yesterday and asked the clerk for the \u201crate card.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDollar, dollar\u2019n half, two an\u2019 two\u2019n half,\u201d rattled the clerk.<\/p>\n \u201cAll right,\u201d said the man with the slouch hat, \u201ctwo\u2019ll do, I reckon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow long do you want to stay?\u201d asked the man at the desk.<\/p>\n \u201cJust a week,\u201d replied the girl.<\/p>\n \u201cAny baggage to be attended to?\u201d the clerk wanted to know.<\/p>\n Two checks were produced and handed over to the porters.<\/p>\n \u201cNow about meals?\u201d asked the man with the slouch hat.<\/p>\n The clerk explained these matters and then asked the man:<\/p>\n \u201cWould you like to accompany the lady to her room with her baggage?\u201d<\/p>\n What!!!<\/p>\n \u201cWould I like w-w-what?\u201d questioned the slouch-hatted man.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is permitted. You may go up and see the apartment if you wish,\u201d said the clerk.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I reckon I may,\u201d said the guest. \u201cWhat do you think I come here for if I can\u2019t even see my own room?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour room?\u201d gasped a woman who had called for her key. \u201cYour room! Do you know where you are?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThought this was a hotel, madam,\u201d said the man with a low bow.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what it is,\u201d said the spinster. \u201cThat\u2019s just what it is. A ladies\u2019 hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a mistake,\u201d said the clerk. \u201cI thought the gentleman was arranging for the lady\u2019s room.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, why can\u2019t she stay here?\u201d demanded the tall man with a touch of anger.<\/p>\n \u201cShe can, but you can\u2019t. It is against our rules. We don\u2019t receive gentlemen.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Missouri Idiom<\/p>\n \u201cWell, what kind of a town is this?\u201d demanded the stranger.<\/p>\n \u201cI come from Boston. Maybe you think you can all do things like that away down here, but you\u2019ve got to show me. I ain\u2019t been married but four days an\u2019 I reckon we ain\u2019t goin\u2019 to separate now. Come on, Dolly; we will go elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n And they went.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>