The description of the newly built Ludlow Hotel from the April 22, 1885 Monroe Sentinel continues: The gas fixtures “and all the crockery, glassware, silver, and plated ware, [and] bar outfit were furnished through Glascott & Bragg, [local] dealers, and their bid was about $100 below all others offered, notwithstanding they competed successfully with leading jobs in Chicago and Milwaukee. The selection of this part of the outfit is characterized by good judgment and excellent taste.
“The carpets for the hotel were furnished by J. H. Miller, dealer of this city, and their selection and the figures made to Mr. Ludlow does that enterprising merchant great credit.
“The basement of ‘The Ludlow’ is utilized entire. There is a complete steam laundry, an ample store room, a department for vegetables. The boiler room and pumping fixtures, fuel vault under the broad [sic] walk and main porch, a billiard hall and sample room, supplied with the best furniture and appliances stocked with the best to be found anywhere. The basement was also well lighted and ventilated, and, except in the working rooms, is floored with hard cement.
“The kitchen is a marvel of convenience. A first class professional cook, from Chicago, is the presiding genius here, and with his able assistants, is producing meals that make the stranger glad to come and stay, and sorry to leave.
“The floors of the main rooms of the first floor are polished oak and ash, and are kept clean by frequent application of water and brush. In gloomy weather or in a cool evening a cheerful open fire greet you as you enter the sitting rooms, and the whole house is kept at a delightful temperature by the steam pipes which are arranged to be ornamental as well as useful. All the rooms, except in the fourth story, are provided with inside blinds, and the sitting rooms and chambers with draperies additional. In furnishing his hotel, Mr. Ludlow took particular pains to get the best of the kinds of materials needed — which were not necessarily the most expensive, using good sense and the advice of experienced practical men, among them, Mr. Babcock, his manager. The hair mattresses and woven wire springs and upholstered furniture were purchased of the Chicago Carpet Company and of the Grand Rapids Furniture Company. The ladies sitting room is supplied with a beautiful mantel and open grate. A new piano stands convenient for those who may desire to use it. The furniture is upholstered, and of unique patterns, brusselles carpet. Off of this is a cozy toilet room, with modern conveniences, lighted by many colored glass windows.”
“This complete establishment, which is at once a grand monument to Mr. Ludlow’s enterprise, pluck and generosity, and a source of just pride to our town and county, a credit to the state, cost nearly $40,000. It might have cost $50,000 and still be no larger or better, had the work and management of the materials been under different control. It is conceded to be an honest, solid, well-constructed house, and with a few inexpensive alterations, will be well above criticism. These changes, Mr. Ludlow says he shall make immediately, and before he lets up, proposes to have his hotel a model.”
After much anticipation “The Ludlow” opened on the evening of April 8, 1885. It was reported that during the first seven days that 97 guests had stayed there, 60 of them being strangers. Several had come to stay several days. On Sunday, April 19, there were 20 regular guests, but 60 people sat down to dinner. A letter to the editor on April 22 showed that people from Milwaukee, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Janesville, New York, Pennsylvania, and two from Canada had stayed at the new facility.
It was announced a week after the opening that H. G. White had “made some very fine photographs of the Ludlow Hotel, being nearly a front view with the north elevation in perspective, which gives a picture a very correct reflex of the building seen at its best.” They were ”handsomely mounted and finally finished” and were sold for fifty cents each.
Before the end of April Sut Norris superintended the placing of two large dry cold storage boxes, refrigerators by Shopbell & Norris, of Janesville. “These are the best coolers ever invented.” The hotel continued doing a wonderful business with as many as 30 guests in one night.
G. W. Babcock, manager of the hotel since it opened, had been contemplating managing it on his own for some time. The papers were signed on May 20 making him the lessee as well as the manager. The Babcocks had several years experience of managing hotels in Chicago and came highly recommended.
On June 10 the editor said, “ The elegant dinners served at ‘The Ludlow’ are quite the thing, you know - and everybody is pleased with the impartial way in which guests are treated. Mr. Babcock, gives his personal attention to every detail. And Mr. Lewis, the accomplished cook, is nonpareil on a pica base. The cookery is perfection in variety and style.”
It had been reported on April 22 that “the waste water from the baths, wash rooms, laundry, etc. is all carried through close pipes, provided with traps, into the main sewer, and on its way does duty in cleaning the vaults of the water closets.” Unfortunately, “the architect made a serious blunder when he had devised this most important and necessary part of his plan and specifications.” Therefore, Norman Churchill was changing the entire system “of drainage pipes and sewerage” in June.
In the rest of these columns I’ll be sharing some tidbits of information about the Ludlow Hotel during the next few decades. The chief cook, Mr. Lewis, left this job and went to Chicago “to take charge of the cuisine of the Clifton House” in November 1885. For its first Christmas the hotel “held a Christmas tree distribution for the employees and the proprietor.”
More about this elegant hotel will be shared in the final two columns.
— Matt Figi is a Monroe resident and a local historian. His column will appear periodically on Wednesdays in the Times. He can be reached at mfigi48@tds.net or at 608-325-6503.
