How Did Julia Mccarthur Build The Hotel Park
Julia McArthur built the Hotel Park in the Pines for an estimated $300,000, she was a widow from Detroit, Michigan. McArthur co-owned the Park Hotel in Mount Clemmons, Michigan with her Aunt Margretha Kieffer. Kieffer encouraged McArthur to build the Hotel Park in the Pines in Aiken, South Carolina. In January of 1900 the hotel opened for business.
Daniel Boone Smith was a 29-year-old lawyer who graduated in 1904 from Harvard law school. In the fall of 1912, Smith was experiencing respiratory issues caused by the industrial New York environment he lived in, and his cigarette habit. That same year on Christmas Day, Smith met with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a dear friend from his Harvard days, who suggested that Daniel should take some time off and go to Hotel Park in the Pines. Franklin had heard while he was staying in New York that the southern pines and fresh air is good for the lungs. The …show more content…
city’s low living and health standards, as well as harsh factory working conditions created a highly polluted environment leading to the temporary migration of several New Yorkers to this southern haven.
A couple weeks after New Years Day, Smith was making his way to his private practice when he started to struggle to breathe and cough vigorously. This episode was enough to remind Smith of the conversation he and Roosevelt had about the Aiken hotel and convince him of the need for time off to recover and heal.
With his mother being his only surviving family member, Smith was able to leave on the next train. So the young lawyer set off on the 22 hour Southern Railway ride on January the 17th, 1913. He arrived in Aiken on January 18th at 11 pm. He soon began his enjoyable vacation at the 40 acre Park in the Pines estate. Smith planned to stay at the hotel for 3 weeks, and following his second week, he had already given up smoking cigarettes.
Early in the morning of February the 2nd, Smith was in the dining hall having breakfast with a young entrepreneur he met at the hotel.
During the breakfast, Smith received a telegram from his childhood estate in Boston. The telegram was from his mother’s staff saying she had fallen critically ill and requesting his immediate return. Smith quickly went to the lobby and asked when the next train to Boston was. Hearing that it wasn’t until 6 am the next morning, Smith began feeling helpless and decided to retire to his third story room. While in the elevator, he lit a cigarette to calm his nerves, not knowing that the pinewood walls had been recently polished. Smith feeling very anxious about his mother’s condition fumbled with his cigarette, and caught it against the wall of the elevator. The freshly polished wood went up in flames at nearly 11 am. Smith and the elevator attendant put forth their best effort to put out the fire but to no avail. Neither survived. The flames soon spread from the elevator shaft to the rest of the Hotel. Only the dining room was left
standing.
Smith represented the many New York elites that came south to escape the harsh environment that they created. The terrible living conditions, gross streets, and disgusting slums formed from the little money industrial workers made in factories. The elitist created this by paying little to nothing to their employees as well as American big business not being properly regulated as the US government took more of a laissez faire approach prior to 1901. Harsh working conditions led to many work place accidents such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 giving rise to progressive presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt, who was franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 5th cousin, and his predecessor’s William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Theodore Roosevelt brought about reform such as the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Hotel Park in the Pines fire gave rise to the increase in water pressure for fire hoses to put out fires. Many of the guests told the New York Times that they wished the fire wouldn’t have occurred. It seems ironic the fire was started by a man running from an environment that they created.
Daniel Boone Smith was a 29-year-old lawyer who graduated in 1904 from Harvard law school. In the fall of 1912, Smith was experiencing respiratory issues caused by the industrial New York environment he lived in, and his cigarette habit. That same year on Christmas Day, Smith met with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a dear friend from his Harvard days, who suggested that Daniel should take some time off and go to Hotel Park in the Pines. Franklin had heard while he was staying in New York that the southern pines and fresh air is good for the lungs. The …show more content…
city’s low living and health standards, as well as harsh factory working conditions created a highly polluted environment leading to the temporary migration of several New Yorkers to this southern haven.
A couple weeks after New Years Day, Smith was making his way to his private practice when he started to struggle to breathe and cough vigorously. This episode was enough to remind Smith of the conversation he and Roosevelt had about the Aiken hotel and convince him of the need for time off to recover and heal.
With his mother being his only surviving family member, Smith was able to leave on the next train. So the young lawyer set off on the 22 hour Southern Railway ride on January the 17th, 1913. He arrived in Aiken on January 18th at 11 pm. He soon began his enjoyable vacation at the 40 acre Park in the Pines estate. Smith planned to stay at the hotel for 3 weeks, and following his second week, he had already given up smoking cigarettes.
Early in the morning of February the 2nd, Smith was in the dining hall having breakfast with a young entrepreneur he met at the hotel.
During the breakfast, Smith received a telegram from his childhood estate in Boston. The telegram was from his mother’s staff saying she had fallen critically ill and requesting his immediate return. Smith quickly went to the lobby and asked when the next train to Boston was. Hearing that it wasn’t until 6 am the next morning, Smith began feeling helpless and decided to retire to his third story room. While in the elevator, he lit a cigarette to calm his nerves, not knowing that the pinewood walls had been recently polished. Smith feeling very anxious about his mother’s condition fumbled with his cigarette, and caught it against the wall of the elevator. The freshly polished wood went up in flames at nearly 11 am. Smith and the elevator attendant put forth their best effort to put out the fire but to no avail. Neither survived. The flames soon spread from the elevator shaft to the rest of the Hotel. Only the dining room was left
standing.
Smith represented the many New York elites that came south to escape the harsh environment that they created. The terrible living conditions, gross streets, and disgusting slums formed from the little money industrial workers made in factories. The elitist created this by paying little to nothing to their employees as well as American big business not being properly regulated as the US government took more of a laissez faire approach prior to 1901. Harsh working conditions led to many work place accidents such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 giving rise to progressive presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt, who was franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 5th cousin, and his predecessor’s William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Theodore Roosevelt brought about reform such as the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Hotel Park in the Pines fire gave rise to the increase in water pressure for fire hoses to put out fires. Many of the guests told the New York Times that they wished the fire wouldn’t have occurred. It seems ironic the fire was started by a man running from an environment that they created.