Barnum Hotel feeding 500 in 1855

Andrew McLaughlin (1802-1863) owned the Patapsco Hotel in Ellicott's Mills from c1830 until it was sold by lottery tickets in 1834.  A year later he bought into his father-in-law's hotel in Baltimore - Barnum Hotel.  More info in past post HERE  Charles Weld (1813-1869) visited the huge hotel while McLaughlin owned it and although the rooms were full they had a bath and breakfast.

"Barnum's Hotel, for which we were charged a dollar each. Here, however, we plunged into even greater chaos. The large hall of this large hotel was thronged by hundreds of people, striving to inscribe their names in the bar-book. Finding that every room in the house was already occupied,

I took no part in this struggle; preferring rather the luxury of a warm bath, which was particularly refreshing after the wretched night I had spent. This, and an excellent breakfast, to which I sat down in company with about 500 persons, gave me renewed strength for sight-seeing duties.

The resources of American hotels are really wonderful. Sleeping accommodation has its limits, but the wealth of the culinary department seems to be boundless. No accession of visitors, be they ever so numerous, exhausts the supplies. I remember during one of my continental rambles, encountering the King of Prussia at an hotel, and being told that in consequence of the royal visit having exhausted the commissariat department, I could not be provided with dinner. Not all the potentates of Europe, including their suites, would, I believe, have such an unfortunate effect on the resources of an American hotel."

Weld, Charles Richard.  A Vacation Tour in the United States and Canada  London: 1855.
Isaac Weld, his half brother, wrote a book about his travels in the United States in 1799

©2020 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD