Pottery Knobs Offered Affordability and Durablility

Pottery knobs located in parts of Louis Dupuy's Hotel de Paris were made of baked clay glazed in brown, white, or black.  Catalog advertisements published and distributed by Sears, Roebuck and Company, Montgomery Ward & Company, Penn Hardware Company, Charles A. Strelinger & Company, Branford Lock Works, Bliven, Mead & Company, and several other firms made the products widely available.  Finishes were marketed as mineral (mottled brown), porcelain (white), and jet (black).  Doorknobs came with Japanned mountings in quantities of 12 to a box or 25 dozen to a case.

Bennington Knobs

Christopher Webber Fenton of Bennington, Vermont acquired Patent No. 6907 from the United States Patent Office on November 27, 1849 for an improvement in glazing pottery-ware.

Patent tag for Fenton's glazing technique

Fenton invented a "new and useful improvement in the applications of colors and glazes to all articles made of potters' materials," including doorknobs and shutter knobs.  Also known as Flint Enamel Ware and called Agate Ware, his process of coloring and glazing with deep and light shades closely imitated seashells, variegated stones, and fluids in motion.

C. W. Fenton

Several years after Fenton's patent was granted, former slip script pottery button maker D. Wheeler of South Norwalk, Connecticut produced in 1853 mineral knobs for doors, furniture, and shutters out of red, white, and black clays.

Wheeler's pottery knobs were finished in Rockingham glaze, which is described as a thick brown finish.

Commercial Kitchen-mineral shutter knob

Pottery Knob Inventory

Hotel de Paris employed pottery knobs in staff quarters, public spaces, and back-of-the-house locations.

2nd Story (Powers Bldg., c. 1870)

Room 3-porcelain set

Room 4 (exterior)-mineral knob

Room 4 (interior)-porcelain knob

Room 7-jet set

Room 8-porcelain set

1st Story (Hotel de Paris, 1878)

Commercial Kitchen (northeast)-mineral set

Commercial Kitchen (southeast)-mineral set

Commercial Kitchen (west)-mineral set

Commercial Kitchen (south exterior)-porcelain knob

Commercial Kitchen (south interior)-mineral knob

Laundry-mineral set

Passage to SR2-mineral set

Passage to Room 13-mineral set

1st Story (Hotel de Paris, 1882)

Cellar (exterior)-mineral knob

Cellar (interior)-porcelain knob

Cellar (Hotel de Paris, 1882)

Passage from Butcher's Shower to Coal Room-porcelain set

2nd Story (Hotel de Paris, 1882)

Lodger's Half-Bath-porcelain set

2nd Story (Hotel de Paris, 1889)

Room 5-jet set

Room 6-jet set

Room 6 Bath-mineral set

Early Furnishings Helped Fund Purchase of Powers Building

Initially a commercial tenant, restaurateur and hotelier Louis Dupuy sought to elevate and convert Delmonico Bakery, which occupied the Powers Building on Alpine Street (now 6^th Street), into a first-class French restaurant.  This transformation would require a setting deserving his reputation as best cook in the Colorado Territory and his interest in selling French flair in one of the West’s most famous and bustling silver mining camps.

As a tenant, Dupuy’s ability to adapt the building was limited or not allowed; therefore, he purchased the Powers Building with intent to expand and remodel the restaurant dining room and add a large commercial kitchen.

A $200-$300 reward (approximately $4,332-$6,498 USD in 2020) Dupuy earned for his heroism in saving lives in a mining accident some years before would have been used to take over the bakery, establish Hotel de Paris, and move overseas family members Sophie and Jean-Antoine Gally to Colorado for staffing Dupuy’s venture.

Joshua Monti

By January 1877, a combination of items (perhaps left by bakery operators and added to by Dupuy) resulted in the following list of movable personal property included in the document “Chat. (Chattel) Mort. (Mortgage)/Louis Dupuy/To/Joshua Monti” from Book 42, Page 202 and Book 37, Page 405:

·       15 beds and bedding clothes
·       10 silver dinner casters
·       Cream, sugar, and butter stands
·       54 pans and cooking utensils
·       10 dozen glasses
·       10 dozen plates
·       10 dozen cups and saucers
·       10 dozen dishes
·       20 carpets
·       12 cases of different wines
·       A small house and laundry
·       8 chandeliers
·       All other furniture, appliances and utensils used in carrying on the hotel business

Probably in conversation among merchants along Alpine Street (a popular pastime even today), Dupuy and Joshua Monti (a Swiss immigrant who ran a neighboring bakery and grocery store) discussed a business agreement and entered a financial arrangement. 

The Monti Block contained a bakery and grocery

Dupuy sought to mortgage assets (chattel) of his hotel  for $700 (approximately $17,328 USD in 2020) plus 1/4 interest ($17.50) to raise money towards purchasing the Powers Building for $1,250 (approximately $30,943 USD in 2020).  If Dupuy failed to pay the loan off, his restaurant and hotel furnishings could easily be used by Monti in his myriad business ventures, and Monti would gain from the elimination of Dupuy’s competition (like Dupuy, Monti sold food, wine, liquors, and cigars); however, the mortgage stipulated Dupuy's possessions would be confiscated and sold if the loan and interest were not paid back in six months (June 29, 1877).

An important factor in Dupuy’s desire to own the Powers Building and expand his restaurant was the imminent arrival of the Colorado Central Railroad to Georgetown on August 1, 1877.  The welcoming crowd numbered an estimated 8,000 people, which to a restaurateur translates into many potential customers and countless gourmet meals and bottles of imported wines.

Dupuy experienced highs and lows in 1878.  About this time, he proposed marriage to Eda Bryant; Dupuy’s proposal was refused.  We may never know if Dupuy was trying to impress Eda with his entrepreneurship or simply trying to distract himself from a broken heart, but after successfully raising $1,250 Louis Dupuy purchased the Powers Building on the West ½ of Lot 3 in Block 20 from Edward R. Powers.

By the end of the year, Dupuy’s plan to “refit” the kitchen was mentioned in the Colorado Miner newspaper and right away, interest was generated.  In March 1879 (during renovations to expand and improve the restaurant dining room), Dupuy hosted mining, railroad, and financial tycoons Jay Gould, George Gould, General Grenville Dodge, Sidney Dillon, Russell Sage, G. H. Baker, Oliver Ames, W. A. H. Loveland, and E. K. Berthoud in what became known as The Millionaires’ Dinner or A Gentlemen’s Dinner in the Rockies.  The men arrived on a special train from Golden, Colorado, then boarded carriages in Georgetown for a short tour of the settlement.  Dupuy prepared and served Oysters on the Half Shell, soup, Ptarmigan or Pheasant in Casserole, Venison Cutlet, Sauce Piquant, Sweetbreads Eugénie, vegetables, Apple Fritters, salad, French Bread, Peach Charlotte with Brandy Sauce, petits fours, and coffee.  During the meal,  Dupuy gave his “Souvenir of Alençon” speech:

Gentlemen, I love these mountains and I love America, but you will pardon me if I bring into this community a remembrance of my youth and my country.  To have the human name preserved has ever been, not only the desire, but one of the illusions of my race, and will doubtless always be.

Mausoleums are built and tablets hewn for the purpose of binding memory, the fact of a life.

In the very earliest of Hindu mythology the milk of the sea was mystically churned to make the amrita, which gave immortality; and all the literature since, bears trace of similar fancies.  This desire to be remembered, that our dust shall retain the tender regard of those whom we leave behind, that the spot where it shall lie will be remembered with a kind of soothing reverence, that our children will visit it in the midst of their sorrows, and our kindred, in after times, will find that a local inspiration hovers round it, has been one of the most potent forces in the history of men.  It created literature, architecture, and the art of war; it built pyramids, started the crusades, discovered, penetrated and peopled America.

And so, my friends, this house will be my tomb…and if, in after years, someone comes and calls for Louis Dupuy, show them this little souvenir of Alençon which I built in America, and they will understand.

In 1975, portions of Dupuy’s speech were repeated by journalist Charles Kuralt during a CBS Television episode of “On the Road.”

Managing Change During the 2020 Pandemic

Before the COVID-19 pandemic was upon us, Hotel de Paris Museum set a financial goal to raise $25,000 in admissions, donations, and shop sales between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021.  Then, on March 25, 2020 Governor Jared Polis issued the first in a series of COVID-19 related executive orders for all Coloradans to stay at home due to the presence of COVID-19 in the state.  An extension of the order went into effect April 6.  On April 26, the  executive order labeled “safer at home” loosened restrictions for Coloradans to shelter in place.  A disaster emergency was declared May 22 due to the presence of Coronavirus disease in Colorado, and on May 25 the safer at home executive order was amended and extended.  Most recently, the Safer at Home and in the Vast, Great Outdoors executive order was passed June 1, offering some hope of a slow, but eventual recovery.

However, this long-term situation will make it exceedingly difficult for the museum to raise $25,000 by the end of its fiscal year.  To mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 to the museum’s financial health and stability, plans were undertaken early on to prepare the site for a phased reopening of Hotel de Paris Museum during its 66^th year of operation.

A Public Health Order issued by the State of Colorado closed our site, but guidance from Clear Creek County Public and Environmental Health aided in a successful (safe) reopening of Hotel de Paris Museum June 19, 2020 (one day after Governor Polis addressed reopening museums, which are considered non-essential and a small to medium exposure risk).

The closure was a time to continue fulfilling our mission and make changes in preparation of resuming guided tours and inviting customers back into our museum shop (admissions and merchandise sales are two of our revenue streams).  Thankfully, Governor Polis and County Commissioners Randall "Randy" Wheelock, George Marlin, and Sean Wood provided regular informative briefings to aid businesses reopen and work toward normalcy and recovery.

The following information is based on best practices shaped by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Governor Polis’ COVID-19 Response Team, Clear Creek County Public and Environmental Health, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America/Great American Treasures, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Press conferences, meetings, webinars, websites, and documents provided information that was collected and disseminated into five categories.  The result was “Reopening Plan for Hotel de Paris Museum."

HYGIENE

• Daily employee temperature check
• Hotel de Paris Museum provides a non-contact infrared thermometer and keeps an employee log of temperatures and symptoms
• COVID-19 Employee Health Screening Form for Onsite Screening in use
• Staff members with temperatures 99+* F will be sent home
• Temperature logs become part of the museum’s personnel files
• Staff were issued one non-surgical face mask
• Hourly hand washing by staff
• Repetitive use of hand sanitizer by staff
• Hand sanitizer containing 65% alcohol in use
• Hand sanitizer at points of entry/exit
• Museum Shop
• Museum
• Annex
• Staff restroom
• Executive director’s office
• Metal folding chairs available in each room 1^st Floor (museum)
• Replaces folding wood chair
• Can be disinfected after use
• No access to visitor security lockers until further notice
• Mandatory masks or face coverings for staff, volunteers, and visitors
• Masks or face coverings must stay on and cover the nose and mouth when on Hotel de Paris Museum property
• Single use masks or face coverings are available for visitors who arrive without a mask or face covering
• Visitors will be asked to leave the property if not compliant (Executive Order 6.4.2020)
• Disinfecting wipes, paper towels and bleach based cleaner in use
• Museum Shop
• Museum
• Annex
• Identify clean pens from used pens
• Provide separate, labeled containers
• Disinfect used pens with a bleach based cleaner

 

SOCIAL DISTANCING

• Guided tours of no more than 6 visitors + 1 tour guide
• Group size determined by room configurations
• Group size determined by room furnishings
• No more than 3 staff members on site
• Keep site occupancy to 10 or fewer people
• Executive director’s office restricted to ED only
• 6 feet social distancing
• Distinct standing spots identified for visitors (1^st Floor)
• Distinct standing spots identified for tour guides (1^st Floor)
• Guide will address from doorway in Room 13
• Guide will address visitors from doorway in Sample Room 2
• Relocated proprietor portrait gallery from a congested area to a large room
• Minimal changes to historic furnishing configurations add more usable floor space
• Removed seating to discourage congregating
• 6^th Street entrance
• Museum Shop
• Courtyards
• Sneeze guard installed at admissions desk
• No more than two customers in museum shop at any time; shared households may have no more than four in museum shop at any time
• Signage

CONTACT TRACING

• Online admissions have precedence to walk-up admissions
• Regulates size of group
• Serves as a reservation
• Aids in locating visitors should an outbreak occur
• Collects customer names
• Records contact information

PROGRAMMING CHANGES

• Reduced tour schedule
• Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays
• 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m.
• Discounted General Admission pricing for 2020
• Online convenience fee $1 per paid admission
• 1^st Floor tour only (Commercial Kitchen, Dining Room, Sample Room 2, Rooms 13 & 14)
• 2nd story virtual tour
• Cellar virtual tour
• Onsite visitors unable or unwilling to wear a mask or face covering can visit us online
• Take a virtual tour of the 2^nd Story for FREE
• Take a virtual tour of the Cellar for FREE
• Read Louis’ menu online for FREE
• Watch a variety of videos for FREE
• Examine our in-depth blog articles for FREE
• Removed interactive experiences until further notice
• Call bell
• Cold roll mangle
• Copy of restaurant menu
• Albums of historic photos, correspondences, and receipts
• Smell jars
• Suspended indefinitely Group Tours and Facility Rentals
• Cancelled experiential wine tours for 2020
• Cancelled annual Bastille Day celebration for 2020
• Cancelled Blue Star Museums for 2020
• Cancelled Smithsonian magazine Day for 2020
• Developed and executed a new online auction

SITE CHANGES

• Opened doors between rooms on 1^st floor
• Improves air circulation
• Eliminates touching of door hardware
• Opened windows for air replenishment and improved circulation
• Commercial Kitchen
• Sample Room 2
• Room 13
• Room 14
• Museum Shop (Sample Room 1)
• Restricted some areas
• 2^nd story
• Cellar
• Security lockers
• Admissions desk
• Separate entrances for museum tours and museum shop

VISITOR GUIDELINES

• Face mask covering nose and mouth required.
• Maintain social distance of 6 feet.
• Sanitize hands regularly.
• Follow staff instructions.
• Service animals allowed.  No pets.
• No seating, restrooms, or water available.
• Daily capacity is capped to ensure necessary space for social distancing.
• First floor tour only.  The 2ND story and cellar are closed at this time.
• Set aside one hour for your visit.
• No bags, backpacks, luggage, or strollers allowed.
• Do not visit Hotel de Paris Museum if you are COVID-19 positive, have had close contact with someone COVID-19 positive, or are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.
• Visitors not following requirements may be asked to leave.

To help Hotel de Paris Museum fill its fundraising gap, go to www.hoteldeparismuseum.org before April 1, 2021.

Lung Disease and Improved Healthfulness of Louis Dupuy’s Hotel de Paris

After the completion of the 1889 addition to Hotel de Paris, proprietor Louis Dupuy acquired a copy of Professor Koch’s Cure for Consumption by Berlin physician Dr. H. Feller.  The sixty-one-page book explained the discovery of tubercle bacillus by Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch, his experimental investigation, and application of his discovery.  It is Koch's claim of a remedy that seems to have impressed Dupuy and perhaps influenced his plans for expanding his popular French inn.

Professor Robert Koch

Due to Dupuy’s reputation as the best cook in the Colorado Territory, Hotel de Paris thrived into the 1890s.  The remodeling of his hotel restaurant and adding of a commercial kitchen in 1878, rapid-fire building of staff and guest rooms in 1881, constructing of salesmen’s sample rooms and guest rooms in 1882, and, shortly-thereafter, erecting of guest rooms and his own private quarters in 1889 indicates a depth of financial resources and a reason to grow his business:  demand for a variety of fine food prepared in the best manner, choices of imported liquor and soft drinks, and luxuriant accommodations in the refined and picturesque silver mining town of Georgetown, Colorado.  

Dupuy earned wealth from his childhood experiences, innate talent, professional training, self-imposed discipline, and hospitable demeanor.  After a fire vacated neighboring lots occupied by the  McClellan Opera House and Mrs. Johnson's millinery store in January 1892, Dupuy stepped up efforts to improve the appearance of the hotel, and, most importantly, developed plans for a six-room addition.  However, the Panic of 1893 and subsequent years-long economic depression could have stymied Dupuy’s achievements and closed his business, ending his dreams of redemption through respectability.  Yet in those uncertain economic times, instead or ratcheting down operations, he forged on.

The 1890 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the Block 20 location of McClellan Opera House, Mrs. Johnson's millinery shop, a carriage repository, and Hotel de Paris

It is likely the economic depression negatively impacted Dupuy’s thriving business, although he continued to enjoy patronage from businessmen, Denverites, and wealthy tourists seeking entertainment in elevated regions where tuberculosis occurred less frequently (tuberculosis has been called "the disease that helped put Colorado on the map").  This is what makes the timing of his plan to expand the hotel during a financial disaster so curious.  Instead of clinging to his previous business model of packing people into his guest rooms to satisfy demand, Dupuy adopted a new business model that focused on high health and made changes to reduce congestion within the guest rooms and common areas of Hotel de Paris by offering what Dr. Koch recommended: clean living, privacy, and health.

The only way to accomplish this, yet maintain the volume he was experiencing, was to decrease the number of lodgers per room and add more rooms at a financially inopportune time.  Based on furniture, accessories, and linens stored in Rooms 7 and 8, Dupuy appeared to prepare the outfitting of an additional guest room and a gentlemen’s smoking room that would increase his own privacy as well as allow guests to spread out within the confines of his establishment. 

Dupuy's key board showcased twenty guest rooms, even though only fourteen existed within Hotel de Paris

No longer would same-sex lodgers (and strangers to one another) cram into hotel rooms and beds; by decreasing the occupancy in each guest room and common areas, Dupuy followed Dr. Koch’s recommendations to create uncrowded conditions by social distancing.

It may be the number of drinking glasses, towels, and pillowcases recorded on the appraisement bill (a just valuation of property) from the “Estate of Louis Dupuy, Deceased” (January 1901) that best reflects efforts to reduce guest room and common area occupancy levels:

• Sample Room 1 had become an office.
• Sample Room 2 had become Dupuy’s private library and smoking room.
• Rooms 3, 13, 14, and Annex Room 1 were staff quarters.
• Room 4 contained 1 pillowcase, 1 glass tumbler, 1 fancy Turkish towel, and 1 cuspidor (indicating one lodger).
• Room 5 contained 1 pair of sheets, 2 pillowcases, 1 glass tumbler (indicating up to two lodgers traveling together).
• Room 6 and Annex Room 2 each contained abundant furnishings and linens (indicating families or larger traveling parties who desired to remain grouped).
• Rooms 7, 8, and Annex Room 3 had become storerooms.
• Rooms 9, 10, 11, and 12 each contained 1 pair sheets, 2 pillowcases, and 1 glass tumbler (indicating up to two lodgers traveling together per room).

By the end of 1900, it appears Sample Rooms 1 and 2, Rooms 7 and 8, and Annex Room 3 were taken out of the Hotel de Paris guest room inventory; Rooms 3, 13, 14, and Annex Room 1 remained private staff quarters; Room 4 was decreased from two to one lodger; Room 5 (original capacity of four) was reduced to 1-2 lodgers; Rooms 9, 10, 11, and 12 continued to host 1 lodger (or two if traveling together).

By following Dr. Koch’s recommendations to cure consumption, Dupuy worked to decrease guest interaction by cutting his lodging capacity by nearly half; therefore, it seems plausible Dupuy’s earning potential could potentially be recovered by building more hotel rooms and common areas as well as developing a clientele keen on clean living, privacy, and health. 

Unfortunately, Louis Dupuy himself died of a lung ailment (pneumonia), which halted his plans for continued expansion of Hotel de Paris.  The land he acquired after the 1892 opera house fire is presently a public parking lot.

Please consider making a tax deductible contribution at hoteldeparismuseum.org.

The Influence of Epidemics on Hotel Keeping

In the throes of the COVID-19 world-wide pandemic, it became apparent how relevant our discussion of health preservation is at Hotel de Paris Museum and how Victorian concerns are like our own.  In addition to cooking, hosting, and debating, hotelier and restaurateur Louis Dupuy should be recognized for his interest in sanitary science.  He addressed health on both an individual and communal level, what we currently call public health.  Physical proof of his attention to his own health and safety, as well as his guests, is woven into the built environment of Hotel de Paris.

Toilet paper was offered in individual sheets or on rolls 

It could be argued Dupuy was a borderline germaphobe. His private quarters had vents and fresh air returns to rid the rooms of cigar smoke; he read books about anatomy, nutrition, health, and disease; and, he decorated in the (Charles) Eastlake style, an architectural and household design reform movement believed to improve one’s health through easy-to-clean furnishings that reduced dust, and, therefore, improved health by discouraging disease.  Dupuy also embraced personal hygiene by taking daily ice baths, keeping a flesh brush and skin strap in his private bathroom, and outfitting it with hot and cold running water, a soaking tub, vanity with wash bowl and nickel plated brass spigots, a gravity flush toilet with copper cistern, and toilet paper dispensers from Scott Paper Company. 

Clearly, Dupuy liked creature comforts like these; however, he also ran his famous French inn during a time of industrialization and Western expansion in the United States.  People were leaving the healthful countryside for city jobs or new settlements and discovered pollution and proximity were breeding grounds for communicable diseases such as cholera, dysentery, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and influenza.  Because of the demand for Dupuy’s cooking and luxurious accommodations, along with an interest in outdoor sporting and restoring one’s health in the High Country, Hotel de Paris often ran at capacity.  Therefore, same-sex lodgers were often asked to share rooms—and even beds—with strangers.  Without social distancing, it was necessary Dupuy build sanitary features and practices into his business plan.

Corner vanities and fold-away towel bars
are located in guest rooms and private quarters, Room 4

Every room in his popular hotel contained a washstand, or, in the case of his restaurant dining room, had a lavatory adjacent to it.  Dupuy encouraged (and may have even expected) his guests to engage in frequent hand washing with soap and water.  The double vanity for the dining room was equipped with hot and cold running water, a cake of soap, hairbrush, comb, glass tumbler, and a towel roller and towel.  Five additional roller towels were kept in a nearby walnut wardrobe, which stood outside a public half-bathroom or powder room containing a gravity flush toilet with copper cistern, corner sink, and toilet paper dispenser from Morgan Envelope Company of Springfield, Massachusetts.  A nearly identical communal half-bathroom or powder room was located on the second floor, was ventilated by a skylight and reserved for the use of lodgers and possibly on-site staff.

Custom soap by James S. Kirk & Company Perfumers
Chicago, Illinois

Wash basins, toilets, and bathtubs were mostly purchased from J. L. Mott Iron Works, and regularly scoured by French housekeeper Sophie Gally who used granulated Red Seal Lye to disinfect and freshen.  American chamber maid Sarah Curtain emptied and cleaned sanitary-ware chamber pots for hotel guests and on-site staff.  To facilitate his lodgers’ personal hygiene, Dupuy stocked his well-ventilated guest rooms (each with one or more windows, transoms, and high ceilings for good air circulation to discourage miasmas and “bad air”) with huckaback towels and created a retail area in the restaurant dining room in which he sold five types of soap (one suited for children and others bearing the words “Hotel de Paris”), four choices of women’s perfumes, bay rum cologne for men, rose water glycerin lotion, tooth wash, and chewing gum.  Doormats, toothpick holders and wastepaper baskets were also placed throughout the building.

People were encouraged to use spittoons or cuspidors

Doorknobs, handles, and spittoons in the public areas of Hotel de Paris were brass.  This yellow alloy of copper and zinc was known to possess anti-bacterial qualities.  By 1867, French physician Victor Burq proved copper was antimicrobial and can kill bacteria and viruses within minutes; therefore, copper and brass fittings and accessories were popular not only for their attractiveness and affordability, but also for inherent health benefits. 

Period example of an outdoor clothesline

Because the color white is associated with cleanliness, Dupuy’s restaurant tables were set with white tablecloths and napkins and guest beds were dressed in white sheets, pillowcases, and coverlets.  Dupuy wanted to know when the linens were dingy or soiled, and employed Chinese gardener John Touk as a live-in laundryman for the hotel.  Touk used a copper wash boiler for laundry and washed white linens in hot water to sterilize, lye soap to discourage bed bugs and mites, and Borax to whiten.  For bleaching and sanitizing, laundry was dried out of doors on a clothesline in the sunny East Courtyard.

Copper mixing bowl on zinc countertop, 1878 Commercial Kitchen

Behind the scenes in the commercial kitchen, Dupuy prepared food on farm tables fitted with food-safe anti-bacterial zinc countertops and cooked using copper pots, pans, and mixing bowls.  He prepared food wearing a heavy, white cook’s apron and cap while standing before a white porcelain cooking surface, beneath a skylight which served as a flue and between several exterior doors and windows that provided strong and consistent cross ventilation and a limitless replenishment of fresh mountain air.

Fragment of linoleum under carpet, Room 3

As healthy as Dupuy’s hotel and restaurant were, there were problems:  guests shared cakes of soap, towels, a hairbrush, comb, and glass tumblers; customers touched communal fixtures; antimicrobial sheet linoleum (made popular by Frederick Watson in the 1860s) was removed and wall-to wall-carpeting installed in guest rooms; and, waitresses, musicians, and back-of-the-house staff ate soup Louis Dupuy made from restaurant leftovers salvaged from the plates of patrons. 

Much like today, the Victorian era practice of sanitary science and its preservation of individual and public health was not yet perfected; however, Louis Dupuy’s interest in healthy living in the High Country resulted in good food for vitality, reduced dust indoors, free air flow, antimicrobial surfaces, sanitary plumbing fixtures, sterilized laundry, and abundant toiletries for personal hygiene. 

Let’s all keep working on that social distancing!

Please consider making a tax deductible contribution at hoteldeparismuseum.org.