We all have different criteria for choosing our accommodation when we travel; price, hotel class, traveller rating, style, brand, distance to the city centre, and preferred amenities. For my solo travels, my priority is my safety, and I look for accommodation where I am not conspicuous as a woman travelling alone, but also not invisible — trying to achieve that balance where no one is paying attention to me, but someone would pay attention if I needed help. Next is breakfast, it’s my favourite meal* and I prefer that it’s included with my accommodation and hope that it’s delicious. Lastly, WiFi, I generally don’t travel with a phone. Consequently, my ability to communicate to confirm that I’m still alive and update my location depends on WiFi access for my iPad.
My consideration of other criteria will vary depending on priorities. Do I need to be close to public transport? Do I want to have a view of the ocean? Is it possible to stay at the hotel that served as the inspiration for a novel? (yes, I stayed at the Metropol after reading and loving Amos Towes, A Gentleman in Moscow). And, as much as I may consider the traveller rating, I do so on both the high scale and the low scale. I have found that an accommodation may receive a poor rating on account of having an abysmal party scene in the evening, which tips my scale in the other direction.
Karl certainly didn’t have the luxury of access to all of these diverse options like I do, literally at his fingertips, nor would he have had the financial means to be as selective. He managed to earn enough money along the way for room and board or would receive accommodation in return for a positive mention in the newspaper, or sometimes he just slept in train stations.
After he toured the penitentiary, Karl spent the night at the newly opened Windsor Hotel in Dorchester. Constructed at the cost of $14,500 and built in the Queen Anne style of architecture, the hotel was a 5 storied building with a capacity for 75 guests, offering a daily rate of $1.50 to $3.00 and a weekly rate of $4.00 to $10.00. Although Karl wouldn’t have been able to google the amenities available at the Windsor Hotel, it was documented in the local newspaper, the Chignecto Post, April 9, 1896. The article detailed the amenities and the details of construction, including the size of the spaces.
Akin to us choosing to view a virtual tour on a hotel website, the whole page news article described every detail of the new hotel: On the northern end of the first floor is situated the spacious and well-lighted dining room, which measures 43x23 feet, with large plate glass windows in the northern end, as well as in front, together with octagon tower and block windows. Passing from the dining room, the office is reached, which is 32x36 and fitted up with an open brick fireplace, large plate glass windows and arches, and heavily corniced. On the first floor will also be found the Lavatory which is fitted with the most modern plumbing fixtures. The bathroom is near the Lavatory. The house is now lighted by oil, but electric lights will be put in the coming season.
Over the next 60 years, the Hotel Windsor had seven owners and was sold to the Irving Group of Companies in 1957 then sold for salvage to build a service station. That, too, is now gone, and what remains is just an empty lot.
Some of the former hotel contents can be viewed by the public in the Keillor House Museum — the former Georgian mansion decorated with mid-nineteenth furnishings. It includes some of the china dishes from the Hotel Windsor and the daily ledger from 1905.
The ledger identified the name of the hotel Proprietor of the hotel and the stipulation that money, jewels, coats, valises and other valuables must be left at the office and checked; otherwise, the proprietor will not be responsible for any loss. So guests needed to sign their name, town residence, arrival time, room number, and add a checkmark denoting that any valuables had been checked. Each page of the ledger also had an advertisement from nearby dental surgeons to watchmakers and barristers. It was disappointing the Keillor House did not have the ledger from 1899 as it would have been quite something to see Karl’s name.
Regardless, the Hotel Windsor seems to have been quite a fancy hotel with some modern amenities and would have undoubtedly resulted in high ratings from travellers. Although there’s no reference to the provision of breakfast, and there definitely wasn’t any WiFi, I think that overall it would have met my criteria as a good place to stay the night.
*As previously referenced in the GlobeTrotter blog: my dream breakfast
In case you’ve missed them, click here for more Karl Chronicles