3. Hotel Pennsylvania Had its Own Newspaper
In 1921, Hotel Pennsylvania established its very own newspaper, the only hotel to do so at that point. The paper was called The Pennsylvania Register. In a newspaper interview in 1921 with the paper’s editor, Mrs. Grace Crawley Oakley, the reporter describes the contents of the 4-page journal: “interviews with distinguished guests, news of what is going on in the hotel and in the city, what to see at the theater, interesting excursions about town, special varieties of service offered by the hotel, a page devoted to prominent guests in the house and various other news of interest including a humorous column, whose title. Pen Points, was contributed by a hotel employee.”
The paper was delivered to every room every day except for Sundays and holidays. It was left in the servidor, a unique attraction of Hotel Pennsylvania that set it apart from other hotels. Servidors, now often called valet doors, were cabinets near the hotel room doors that could be opened from both inside the room and from the hallway outside. Guests could leave shoes to be shined and clothes to be pressed inside and they would be inconspicuously picked up by hotel workers on the other side. Other deliveries could be left there as well without disturbing the guests.
