Goshen (above) is on the Erie Railroad mainline in Orange County, New York, and in 1910 it had a population 3,500. In what may be the author's favorite hotel postcard, we see the St. Elmo Hotel "complex" fronting on Grand Street and the Erie depot. The St. Elmo, with its fancy shaded-letter sign, mansard roof and generally grand facade, was quite an enterprise in the town of Goshen. The August, 1910, Sanborn map for Goshen shows the St. Elmo as having a bar room and reading room at one end, a formal dining room (with kitchen annex behind) in the center and leased space to the Post Office and the Goshen Democrat newspaper! Centerville, South Dakota (pop. 1,500 in Jan., 1912), was a Chicago & North Western town (below). The railroad served four elevators, two coal dealers and a small Standard Oil tank farm. In the heart of all this commercial activity was the Turner House Hotel. Located at the corner of Broadway and Railroad St., it looked directly across Broadway at the depot. The front steps spill onto Broadway, and the street beside the long axis of the building is Railroad St. The hotel had signage indicating it had a lunch room to serve transient railway passengers. The first floor entrance at the end of the porch is to the salesman's sample room (very convenient!). The architecture of this steam-heated, electrically-lighted little jewel is unique. The broad porches on two levels are ideal train-watching spots, and the railed "widow's walk" above the third floor is very unusual for a hotel.
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