Philadelphia
Born on the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, he emigrated to the United States in 1864. He began as a kitchen worker in New York, and, at age 25, was hired (by his future father-in-law) to manage the diningroom of Philadelphia's most exclusive gentlemen's club, The Philadelphia Club.
Boldt's first hotel was the Bellevue (1881), at the NW corner of Broad & Walnut Streets, in Philadelphia. He soon bought a competing hotel, the Stratford, at the SW corner. Two decades later, on the site of the Stratford, he built the largest hotel the city had ever seen, the 1,090-room Bellevue-Stratford Hotel (1902-04, now the Park Hyatt).
The enormous fortunes generated by robber barons in the post-Civil War Era led to an unprecedented level of luxurious living for wealthy Americans. Boldt catered to this new super-rich class, charging the highest prices for the very best, and becoming one of them in the process.
Read more about this topic: George Boldt
Famous quotes containing the word philadelphia:
“All the oxygen of the world was in them.
All the feet of the babies of the world were in them.
All the crotches of the angels of the world were in them.
All the morning kisses of Philadelphia were in them.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“It used to be said that, socially speaking, Philadelphia asked who a person is, New York how much is he worth, and Boston what does he know. Nationally it has now become generally recognized that Boston Society has long cared even more than Philadelphia about the first point and has refined the asking of who a person is to the point of demanding to know who he was. Philadelphia asks about a man’s parents; Boston wants to know about his grandparents.”
—Cleveland Amory (b. 1917)