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Page 86
86INTERIOR DECORATING
exceedingly restrained and its effect is cold and rather unsatisfying. A number of New England cities have excellently constructed hotels but their interiors are universally commonplace. Of this class, for example, are the George Washington at Bretton Woods and the equally excellent but undistinguished Balsams at Dix-ville Notch, N. H.
A serious difficulty in the hotel dining room is the enormous expanse of white afforded by the linen covering on every table. I do not know any way to avoid this, since the occupants of most fashionable hostelries probably would not take kindly to the use of doilies or of colored linens, even if the management were willing to provide them. A large element of white is a disagreeable feature in any room, whether it is furnished by a large expanse of uncovered plaster on the wall or, as in this case, by table linen. It may be counteracted, not only by colored hangings, ceiling and wall decoration, but also by the use of beautifully decorated china; but if we could get away from it by having some other kind of table covering it would be an advantage. If we could also prevail upon our hotels to use plain or simply designed carpets instead of the vivid, many-colored ones which they imagine show the dirt less, we should achieve a very desirable result.
In such smaller dining places as grill rooms, tea rooms and restaurants proper, greater decorative liberties are regularly taken, but few of them have contributed any features worthy of observation. The tea shops of New York and other cities and of the resorts near them are put together in the cheapest manner possible and with a distressing effect of sinr
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HOTELS87
ilarity. Exceptions to the rule are the Peg Woffington in New York, which possesses a distinctive character secured by the use of really good early Victorian and early English furnishings and pictures; the Tally-Ho, which is located in a made-over stable with tables and benches in the stalls, and the Roof Tree, which occupies a floor over an antique shop and is filled with brass candlesticks, stone urns and old mirrors.
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