Doing the Town: The Rise of Urban Tourism in the United States, 1850-1915

by Catherine Cocks

Tourists and travelers in the early nineteenth century saw American cities as ugly spaces, lacking the art and history that attracted thousands to the great cities of Europe. By the turn of the century, however, city touring became popular in the United States, and the era saw the rise of elegant hotels, packaged tours, and train travel to cities for vacations that would entertain and edify. This fascinating cultural history, studded with vivid details bringing the experience of Victorian-era travel alive, explores the beginnings of urban tourism, and sets the phenomenon within a larger cultural transformation that encompassed fundamental changes in urban life and national identity.

Focusing mainly on New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Catherine Cocks describes what it was like to ride on Pullman cars, stay in the grand hotels, and take in the sights of the cities. Her evocative narrative draws on innovative readings of sources such as guidebooks, travel accounts, tourist magazines, and the journalism of the era. Exploring the full cultural context in which city touring became popular, Cocks ties together many themes in urban and cultural history for the first time, such as the relationships among class, gender, leisure, and the uses and perceptions of urban space. Offering especially lively reading, Doing the Town provides a memorable journey into the experience of the new urban tourist at the same time as it makes a sophisticated contribution to our understanding of the urban and cultural development of the United States.

Genres: Urban Planning, Grad School

305 pages, Hardcover

First published August 6, 2001

Reviews

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book appears to have began as a Ph.D dissertation, which means the beginning and the end are a bit jargon-y for my taste. (My guess is that Cocks received some advice from her dissertation advisers that, whatever its virtues, did not make her book more fun to read).

Nevertheless, it got better as I dug deeper. I especially liked the chapters focusing on the evolution of hotels and train travel. Early train travel was not well-suited for long-distance riding: people were packed very closely together, toilets were minimal, refreshments were nonexistent. George Pullman made train travel more appealing to the middle and upper classes by creating extra-fare cars that were more luxurious than the less desirable "day coaches." Pullman car seats were bigger, softer, and more widely spaced, and included dining cars.

Hotels also became changed after the Civil War. Early American hotels were modeled after boardinghouses; hotel bills included communal meals, so guests ate the same food at the same time with the proprietor. Privacy was minimal; guests shared not only bathrooms but sleeping rooms- perhaps because many hotel rooms were suites designed to accommodate more than one or two travelers.

Hotel managers found this "American plan" of service (as it was then sometimes called) to be not very profitable; if everyone ate at the same time, that meant hotels had to employ lots of food servers, and people ate a lot of food if it was all included in the price. Eventually, hotels made their food service more like a typical modern restaurant, which meant lower food bills for hotels (because even the people who ate at the hotel restaurant ate less gluttonously when they for every dish) and lower labor costs as well (because a smaller number of servers could be employed to work all day).
By the 20th century, improved technology made individual restrooms possible, and chain hotels cut costs by offering smaller rooms designed for one or two travelers; one offered "A Room and a Bath For A Dollar and a Half" (roughly $50 per night in today's dollars).

In addition to discussing suppliers of travel, Cocks focuses on demand, explaining why cities might have been more popular tourist destinations in 1900 than in 1850. Better sanitation and street cleaning, as well as new parks and cultural institutions, made cities more desirable. And as the country grew older, cities developed historic areas. Tall buildings meant visitors could have better views of the city- both the "skyline view" from the ground and views from the tall buildings themselves. Streetcars allowed visitors to experience a wider variety of neighborhoods, rather than being confined to the mile or so nearest their hotels.

[Meaghan Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great overview, but had two major historiographical flaws in my opinion. The "limit" of four cities was mentioned in the intro and completely lost throughout the rest of the book, it was so unnecessary. Secondly, her bibliographic essay was incredible, but she never placed herself into the historiography or made it clear what gap she was filling- the essay makes it sound like there's no gaps at all. Those are two big things, but the book really was overall good! This book does try to market itself to a broad audience, but I would only recommend it to someone looking very specifically for a book on this subject.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty good. he brings in lefebvre, which was nice...though it wasnt exactly what i wanted. hm.