1st Women-Only Hotel Opened in NYC in 1903

In honor of March being Women’s History Month, we present the following story.

In her famous essay “A Room of One’s Own” published in 1929, English novelist Virginia Woolf argued that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” A hotel that opened in New York City 26 years before Woolf’s revolutionary remark had already established that if a woman had money, she could have her own room: the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel built exclusively for women, opened on 2 March 1903. Male guests were strictly banned.

There was an instant demand for the Martha Washington Hotel’s 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 – and they objected to the female guests’ no-tipping policy.

As the following eight contemporary newspaper articles show, there was a range of reaction in the nation’s press to this new concept of a women-only hotel.

Here is a transcription of this article:

Martha Washington Hotel

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. “There were no exercises,” says the Sun. “The 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.”

This article was published by the New York Times and reprinted by newspapers around the country.

Here is a transcription of this article:

The Woman’s Hotel.

New York Times.

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.

Here is a transcription of this article:

LACK OF MIRRORS ABOUT NEW YORK WOMEN’S HOTEL

Not a Glass Could Be Found on the Reception Floor of a Large Hostelry.

NEW YORK, June 21. – 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 “permanents” proudly conduct their guests to show how a women’s 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.

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: “I have an inward conviction that my hat is on crooked.” 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.

Here is a transcription of this article:

What Did She Want?

An angular looking woman went into the Martha Washington hotel and asked: “Is this the women’s hotel I have heard so much about?”

“It is,” answered the clerk.

“Do you let people smoke here?”

“We do not.”

“Do you keep a bar?”

“Certainly not.”

“Can men come here and stay?”

“They cannot.”

“Do you permit dogs?”

“Under such regulations as hold good in first class hotels.”

“That’s all,” said the woman, as she turned away.

“Do you wish a room?” asked the clerk.

“I do not wish a room,” came the response, with emphasis.

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? “It beats me,” said the clerk, “and yet she was a very respectable looking old girl, too.”

Here is a transcription of this article:

Guests of the Martha Washington women’s hotel in New York City put out a promising blaze in a trunk-room on the 11^th 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’s 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 – and the chances are they would never have thought of the pitchers.

Here is a transcription of this article:

NOT A PLACE FOR HONEYMOONS

Manhattan’s Martha Washington Hotel Puts Ban on Such Patronage.

New York, April 25. – 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 “rate card.”

“Dollar, dollar’n half, two an’ two’n half,” rattled the clerk.

“All right,” said the man with the slouch hat, “two’ll do, I reckon.”

“How long do you want to stay?” asked the man at the desk.

“Just a week,” replied the girl.

“Any baggage to be attended to?” the clerk wanted to know.

Two checks were produced and handed over to the porters.

“Now about meals?” asked the man with the slouch hat.

The clerk explained these matters and then asked the man:

“Would you like to accompany the lady to her room with her baggage?”

What!!!

“Would I like w-w-what?” questioned the slouch-hatted man.

“That is permitted. You may go up and see the apartment if you wish,” said the clerk.

“Well, I reckon I may,” said the guest. “What do you think I come here for if I can’t even see my own room?”

“Your room?” gasped a woman who had called for her key. “Your room! Do you know where you are?”

“Thought this was a hotel, madam,” said the man with a low bow.

“That’s what it is,” said the spinster. “That’s just what it is. A ladies’ hotel.”

“There’s a mistake,” said the clerk. “I thought the gentleman was arranging for the lady’s room.”

“Well, why can’t she stay here?” demanded the tall man with a touch of anger.

“She can, but you can’t. It is against our rules. We don’t receive gentlemen.”

Some Missouri Idiom

“Well, what kind of a town is this?” demanded the stranger.

“I come from Boston. Maybe you think you can all do things like that away down here, but you’ve got to show me. I ain’t been married but four days an’ I reckon we ain’t goin’ to separate now. Come on, Dolly; we will go elsewhere.”

And they went.

Note: An online collection of newspapers, such as GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives, is not only a great way to learn about the lives of your ancestors – the old newspaper articles also help you understand American history and the times your ancestors lived in, and the news they talked about and read in their local papers.