Pair Calling Cards New York Ca 1900

TheTrowmart Inn Hudson and 12^thSt NY

It’s1906. You’re a young woman who has just arrived in New York City. Somehow youfind yourself near Abingdon Square, and you need a place to stay. Your bestbet: the new Trowmart Inn, a six-story “handsome hostelry” on Hudson and West12th Streets.

For$4 a week, a girl could have a single room containing a bed, washstand, andtable, plus breakfast and dinner. The ideal resident is the young lady who “isof the class who labors for a small wage, and whose parents have no home withinthe city,” according to a New York Times article about the Trowmart’sopening.

It’s been a nursing home for several decades and is reportedly slatedto become a co-op.

Sowhat set the Trowmart apart from other women’s hotels of the era? Well, it wasbuilt by a man named William Martin, who was convinced that girls of marryingage didn’t have a respectable place to be courted by “desirable young men,” andwithout such a place, they would never get married.

“[Mr.Martin] does not care for any return upon the capital he has invested,” the Times reports.“He will be satisfied if the girls have a happy home, and if a number ofmarriages accrue each year from the Trowmart Inn.

“Girlsof gentleness and refinement do not care to be courted upon the open highway,nor in public parks, and thus the world is filling with spinsters who,according to Mr. Martin, had they a proper place in which to entertain theiradmirers, would develop into happy, excellent wives and still happier mothers.”

It’seasy to poke fun at a place like this now. But the Trowmart was actuallyforward-thinking for its time in one way: It imposed no restrictions on thegirls who lived there. As long as they worked and paid the bill, they couldcome and go as they pleased, with no curfew.

CourtesyEphemeralnewyork.com