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.

Georgetown's Famous French Inn Grew Vegetables in a Seemingly Modern Way

A couple of years ago, Slashfood.com reported on a kitchen garden trend at hotels, resorts, and chef-driven restaurants.  This year, The New York Times, Country Living Magazine, and Vanity Fair focused attention on the movement, which has been fueled by the recession, interest in safe foods, and a commitment to environmental stewardship.

Preceding the local food movement and Alice Waters' advocacy of the farm-to-table concept, I was reminded that Louis Dupuy might seem ahead of his time.  Although called the "father of domestic science" by Dr. James Russell of Columbia University, Dupuy's reputation as a chef is little known.  Russell later established the first class in the field of home economics after visiting Hotel de Paris and studying the subject under Louis Dupuy.

John Touk, Gardener

The reality is that Louis most likely thought of his kitchen garden as a jardin potager and was simply doing what cooks and chefs had done for centuries.  Landscape historians Rudy and Joy Favretti wrote in their book Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings, "Vegetable gardens...would have been an important part of the grounds of an inn because vegetables were necessary for food for the inn-keeper, his family, and his guests."  It appears Dupuy had help keeping his vegetables, as the 1885 Colorado Census indicates John Touk (a Chinese immigrant) lived at Hotel de Paris and was employed as a gardener.

Today, the practice of growing herbs and vegetables near where they will be prepared and served is seen as not only economical, but expeditious and environmentally-aware due to the elimination of the negatives associated with transportation and its use of fossil fuels and consumption of land...and the history and nostalgia that go along with this self-sufficient practice has a bit of appeal, too.

East Courtyard, Hotel de Paris

The eastern service entry is comprised of an enormous granite lintel supported by massive granite piers and ornamented by the zinc statue Reclining Lion.  For more about the zinc statuary found at Hotel de Paris Museum, please see my March 9, 2011 blog post All That Glitters Is Not Necessarily Gold.

Courtyard gate

This entrance is secured by an ornamental iron gate that incorporates geometric motifs (such as scrolls, twists or spirals, diamonds, hearts, and waves) and a plant motif (roses). The narrow walkway was likely paved with lime mortar to form a hardened path into the walled kitchen garden area. The rubble walls were constructed of native boulders; the lime mortar was most likely made of discarded oyster shells from "Louis'," the first-class French restaurant that operated within Hotel de Paris and was known for its offering of oysters served raw, stewed, fried or escalloped.

East Courtyard

Fire place and cooking stove ashes were once discarded in the East Courtyard.  Wood samples recovered through archaeology indicate a flag pole or clothesline pole may have also been found in this area, which was used for deliveries and for access to sleeping rooms offered at a lesser rate than in the hotel proper.

The eastern court has extensive historic stone paving, ranging from cobbles to blocks.  These stones are believed to be the original surface of the courtyard.  The presence of the rockwork indicates the area was unlikely utilized fully as a garden, although it is known that vegetables, flowers and herbs grew here.  The remnant of a water pump also implies the area was cultivated to some degree.  Small-scale gardening included ornamental plants, such as roses and lilies, and some field crops, such as spinach and chicory.

Woven wire bench and Lyons sandstone

In 2010, Lyons red sandstone walkways and curbing were installed and the current kitchen garden or jardin potager was added for educational purposes and based on archaeological findings. Today, the kitchen garden serves as a display garden for the cultivation of beets, Swiss chard, tomatillos, and sunflowers. Other flowering plants in the East Courtyard include muscari, chives, hollyhocks, and columbines. A woven wire bench has migrated around the property over the years, but has been on-site at least one century.

West Courtyard, Hotel de Paris

The South Alley, a narrow access corridor, connects the East Courtyard to the West Courtyard between the Annex building and kitchen.  The western court was a service yard that was used historically for butchering and storing meat.  The original iron meat hooks remain on the exterior masonry wall of the hotel’s kitchen.

South Alley

Sublime views of Republican Mountain and Sunrise Peak present themselves above a rubble wall topped with a painted wood balustrade that once adorned the Powers Building (ca. 1870).  This commercial property was leased by the Delmonico Bakery until 1875, the year Louis Dupuy established Hotel de Paris.  When Dupuy later purchased the building, he extensively renovated the structure and eventually removed the railing and reinstalled it on the wall of his West Courtyard. 

Railing in original location on the Powers Building (above) and re-used on the West Courtyard wall (below).



       

Harrison’s yellow roses, planted as early as the 1870s in Georgetown, were added to both courtyards in the 1970s.  Other ornamental flowers include poppies, penstemon, and harebells.

Hours: The courtyards are open to the public Memorial Day through Labor Day. Mondays-Saturdays 10 AM - 5 PM; Sundays 12 PM - 5 PM.

Admission: Free to courtyards. A small fee is charged for guided tours of Hotel de Paris Museum. A tour schedule and admission fees for the museum may be found at www.hoteldeparismuseum.org

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