The Lakewood Hotel in Lakewood, N.J., circa 1900. Photo by William Henry Jackson, Detroit Publishing Company, Library
of Congress.
THE HIRAM S. THOMAS STORY
Brownstones, potato chips and Black excellence in nineteenth century Brooklyn.
story by SUZANNE SPELLEN (AKA MONTROSE MORRIS)
The full-service restaurant and dining out for pleasure
is a nineteenth-century invention, born of the pre-Civil
War urban experience and the rise of cities. It didn’t take
long for this kind of experience to be replicated not only
in places like Gage & Tollner and Peter Luger in Brooklyn
but in cities and resorts across the country.
Into our story comes Hiram S. Thomas. Niagara Falls in
Ontario, Canada, was still called Drummondville when
he was born there in 1837. His family’s history in the area
is unknown. Thomas was college educated, but opportunities
for Black men with a college education were few
in mid-nineteenth century North America. He spent his
early working years as a waiter and steward on passenger
boats plying the Great Lakes and the Mississippi.
By the 1870s, during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant,
Thomas held the position of steward at the prestigious
Capitol Club, in Washington, D.C. Many fine dining establishments
of the day were staffed exclusively by Black
waiters, a trend that continued into the twentieth century
in some places, including at Gage & Tollner. Thomas was
described as tall, elegant, and refined, and his job as steward
allowed him to interact with presidents and kings.
HISTORY
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THE HIRAM S. THOMAS STORY